SOURCE: "The Epic Reticence of Abraham Cowley," in Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 31, No. 1, Winter, 1991, pp. 95-116.

In the essay reprinted here, Dykstal analyzes the Davideis, comparing it to the biblical epics of Torquato Tasso and John Milton, and arguing that Cowley's Christian rationalism was the principal barrier to his achieving a successful fusion of sacred material and epic form. The critic asserts that Cowley's subordination of the marvelous or mystical elements in his narrative—together with his emphasis on verisimilitude—effaces the sense of wonder inherent in the biblical story of David.

The first neoclassical epic in English was not Paradise Lost, but Abraham Cowley's Davideis, A Sacred Poem of the Troubles of David, published eleven years before Milton's epic, in 1656. Although the two bear many similarities, they obviously differ in terms of artistic success: Cowley completed only four out of twelve proposed books of his...