James Merrill's apocalypse

the long version

"James Merrill's Apocalypse is at once a work of criticism and an introduction to Merrill's poetry and fiction. Timothy Materer observes that, while Merrill gained fame as a creator of finely crafted lyric poems, he was obsessed with the violence of the modern era and with the threatening reality that underlies everyday experience - themes found throughout his work.". "Materer interprets Merrill's body of work from the perspective of his epic The Changing Light at Sandover and shows that in his earliest poems and in the volumes preceding The Changing Light, Merrill repeatedly expressed his fear of nuclear holocaust and his sense that some momentous revelation was near at hand. Materer demonstrates how apocalyptic motifs also inspire Late Settings, The Inner Room, and A Scattering of Salts."--BOOK JACKET.