|
|
Article: Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Apocalypse: the unraveling of poetic autonomy.(Critical Essay)
- Article from:
- Texas Studies in Literature and Language
- Article date:
- June 22, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 University of Texas at Austin (University of Texas Press). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
I cannot thoroughly love a work of mine,
Since none seems worthy of my thought and hope
More highly mated. He has shot them down,
My Phoebus Apollo, soul within my soul,
Who judges, by the attempted, what's attained,
And with the silver arrow from his height
Has struck down all my works before my face
While I said nothing.
Aurora Leigh (V.411-9)
From the earliest apocalyptic texts of Jewish and Christian Scripture through the romantic experiments of Blake and Shelley, the idea of the end of history and conflict has had a powerful hold on the western imagination. Apocalypse represents a suspended literary space in which politics, the turbulent present, and the ...