Lyric Machines: Insects in Seventeenth-Century Poetry.

This essay examines the prominent presence of insect imagery in seventeenth-century English lyric poetry, arguing that early modern poets used insects not only as subjects influenced by contemporary scientific and artistic developments but also as metaphors to explore the formal and imaginative possibilities of the lyric genre. The diminutive size, brief lifespan, and intricate anatomy of insects resonated with the lyric's compressed, technically demanding nature, while the ambivalent cultural attitudes toward insects mirrored lyric's contested status in early modern England. Through poems by figures such as John Donne, Richard Lovelace, and Thomas Stanley, insects function as liminal figures that embody tensions between human and animal, nature and machine, and life and death, often framed within sacrificial imagery that parallels the ephemeral and material qualities of lyric poetry. The essay highlights how these insect lyrics engage with questions of poetic agency, temporality, and materiality, revealing a complex interspecies intimacy that challenges traditional human-centered conceptions of lyric art.