The interrelationship of apocalypse and millennium is a dominant concern in British Romanticism. The Book of Revelation provides a model of history in which apocalypse is followed by millennium, but the major Romantic poets question the possibility of a successful secularization of this model. Is history developing towards end time and millennium, or is it cyclical and purposeless?

The poems that Coleridge wrote after his "golden" period are seldom studied or anthologized. Yet many of these later poems are of quality and interest, addressing such universal themes as the nature of self and the experience of unrequited love. Paley examines the later verse in the context of Coleridge's oeuvre. He discusses its distinguishing characteristics, and looks at why the poet felt he had to develop distinctively different modes of writing for these works.

This is a study of Blake's poetry, art, and thought during the last years of his life, from 1818 to 1827. Morton Paley considers some of Blake's major accomplishments, including Blake's wood engravings for Thornton's Virgil, the separate plate known as The Laocoon, 101 illustrations to Dante's Divine Comedy, and the great series of Illustrations to the Book of Job. Paley shows us a Blake who has flowered during his late years; a Blake who is free of any "systems," including his own.

The interrelationship of apocalypse and millennium is a dominant concern in British Romanticism. The Book of Revelation provides a model of history in which apocalypse is followed by millennium, but the major Romantic poets question the possibility of a successful secularization of this model. Is history developing towards end time and millennium, or is it cyclical and purposeless?

There has never been a book about Blake's last period, from his meeting with John Linnell in 1818 to his death in 1827, although it includes some of his greatest works. In The Traveller in the Evening, Morton Paley argues that this late phase involves attitudes, themes, and ideas that are either distinctively new or different in emphasis from what preceded them.
After an introduction on Blake and his milieu during this period, Paley begins with a chapter on Blake's illustrations to Thornton's edition of Virgil. Paley relates these to Blake's complex view of pastoral, before proceeding to...

Although Coleridge's thinking and writing about the fine arts was both considerable and interesting, this has not been the subject of a book before.
Coleridge owed his initiation into art to Sir George Beaumont. In 1803-4 he had frequent opportunities to learn from Beaumont, to study Beaumont's small but elegant collection and to visit private collections. Before leaving for Malta in April 1804, Coleridge wrote "I have learnt as much fr om] Sir George Beaumont respecting Pictures & Painting and Paint ers as] I ever learnt on any subject from any man in the same Space of Time."
In...