‘Now Let Us Sport Us While We May’: First Person Plural and the Lyric Voice

Abstract:This article briefly explores the history of reading lyric as a singular voice and, in response, proposes reading lyric through the lens of first-person- plural deixis. After surveying major moments in lyric theory, including recent accounts of lyric as a dialectic of ritual/fictional modes, the author then turns to Herrick’s ‘Corinna’s Going A-Maying’ and Marvell’s ‘To His Coy Mistress’ to explore possibilities for new critical approaches. Reading such works for their use of the lyric ‘we’ can help deconstruct false binaries, remove lyric from the domain of narrative, and sustain a richer and more complex model of the lyric voice.This essay is one of four appearing under the heading ‘Poetry’s We’ in The Cambridge Quarterly vol. 48 no. 3. The four essays evolved as a group and have many shared concerns.