Reading Early Modern English Poetry through the Prisms of Energy and Empire

This dissertation project examines the influence of energy in its many forms on early modern English country house verse and epic, arguing for a novel reading approach — through the prisms of energy — to arrive at more expansive understandings of the historical period, its imaginative literature, and the aims of poets writing that literature. Energy commodity supply and demand growth in early modern England occurred more rapidly than ever before in history and arose simultaneously with England’s first major drive for empire. This project therefore explores how the problematic, symbiotic energy/empire relationship creates tension and conflict delineated imaginatively in country house poetry and the era’s two canonical epics. The work finds that as energy resources become increasingly important to the English and their empire, energy features ever more prominently in their literature. The benefits and the many harms of energy usage were evident to the early modern English. Thus, the poetry under analysis shines light on why society repeatedly opts for the wealth and comfort provided by energy utilization despite the manifest harm exploited energy inflicts on the environment, human health, and individual liberty. The project begins by probing the philosophical underpinnings of energy usage in early modern England and describing the energy utilization technologies of the age. From there, the work focusses on energy depiction in country house verse and the era’s two major epics, Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene and John Milton’s Paradise Lost. The dissertation concludes that in each of the works under discussion, energy exploitation takes on moral dimensions reflecting ongoing societal dilemmas, problems that worsen over the decades as England relies ever more on coal combustion and human motive energy to meet its perceived energetic requirements.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Graduate Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Rozhon, Jon Wesley

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Ellis, James

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Vanek, Morgan
• Nardizzi, Vin
• Dolata, Petra
• Ullyot, Michael

• early modern England
• energy
• cosmogony
• cosmology
• energy systems
• systems theory
• organic energy
• non-organic energy
• biofuels
• coal
• enargeia
• energeia
• energy technology
• empire
• feudalism
• mercantilism
• slavery
• capitalism
• materialism
• vitalism
• atomism
• Little Ice Age
• country house verse
• Geoffrey Whitney
• Ben Jonson
• Andrew Marvell
• Mildmay Fane
• epic
• Edmund Spenser
• The Faerie Queene
• castle of Alma
• Cave of Mammon
• Bower of Bliss
• Mutability Cantos
• John Milton
• Paradise Lost
• To R. Cotton Esquier
• To Richard Cotton Esq
• To Penshurst
• Upon Appleton House
• To Sir Jhon Wentworth
• A Peppercorn or Small Rent

Statement dc:rights

• University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/49868

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ucalgary.scholaris.ca:1880/122276