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The Genius of the Shore: Lycidas, Adamastor, and the Poetics of Nationalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Lawrence Lipking
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Abstract

A collaboration between poetry and nationalism, exemplified by the tutelary border guard or “genius of the shore,” accounts for the interest of many Renaissance poems; redrawing the map, poets express the myths and grievances that hold their nations together. In “Lycidas,” Milton tries to redeem the fatal voyage of Edward King, his Anglo-Irish friend, by renewing the ideal of a missionary spirit, joining poet, saint, and soldier in a protectorate to bridge Ireland and England. In The Lusiads, Camões personifies the Cape of Storms as the titan Adamastor (“Unconquerable”), who curses the audacity of da Gama's voyagers and predicts their future calamities; hence the figure represents both the glory and the self-pity of Portugal and of its national poet. Though Milton and Camões hope for a bright colonial future, they turn their faces, like Benjamin's Angel of History, toward memories of shipwreck in the past.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 111 , Issue 2 , March 1996 , pp. 205 - 221
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1996

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