Poetry and Ecology in the Age of Milton and MarvellThe focus of this study is the perception of nature in the language of poetry and the languages of natural philosophy, technology, theology, and global exploration, primarily in seventeenth century England. Its premise is that language and the perception of nature vitally affect each other and that seventeenth-century poets, primarily John Milton, Andrew Marvell, and Henry Vaughan, but also Margaret Cavendish, Thomas Traherne, Anne Finch, and others, responded to experimental proto-science and new technology in ways that we now call 'ecological' - concerned with watersheds and habitats and the lives of all creatures. It provides close readings of works by these poets in the contexts of natural history, philosophy, and theology as well as technology and land use, showing how they responded to what are currently considered ecological issues: deforestation, mining, air pollutionion, drainage of wetlands, destruction of habitats, the sentience and intelligence of animals, overbuilding, global commerce, the politics of land use, and relations between social justice and justice towards the other-than-human world. In this important book, Diane McColley demonstrates the language of poetry, the language of responsible science, and the language of moral and political philosophy all to be necessary parts of public discourse. |
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Contents
Marvell and the Language | 13 |
Earth Mining Monotheism and Mountain Theology | 43 |
Air Water Woods | 79 |
The Lives of Plants | 109 |
Animals Ornithology and the Ethics of Empathy | 139 |
Animal Ethics and Radical Justice | 171 |
Miltons Prophetic Epics | 197 |
| 229 | |
| 247 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Adam Adam and Eve animals Bacon beasts beauty become beginning birds body Book called century Chapter common created creation creatures death divine dominion early earth ecological English Evelyn expressed Fall fish flowers forest fruit garden gives God's gold Grew ground grow habitats hand hath heaven Henry House human hunting idea John kind knowledge land language leaves light lines living London look Lord Marvell Marvell's materials matter means Milton mind mining moral mountains natural world nature Nehemiah Grew observation Paradise Lost perception philosophers plants poem poetry poets points political provides reason represents responsibility river Royal says sense song soul speak species spirit suggests things Thomas thou thought trees turns University University Press Vaughan whole wild woods writes
Bibliographic information
| Title | Poetry and Ecology in the Age of Milton and Marvell Literary and scientific cultures of early modernity |
| Author | Diane Kelsey McColley |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint |
| Publisher | Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2007 |
| ISBN | 0754660486, 9780754660484 |
| Length | 252 pages |
| Subjects | › Literary Criticism / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |