SOURCE: “James F. Hendry: Apocalyptic Poet and Apologist,” in Poets of the Apocalypse, Twayne Publishers, 1983, pp. 23-42.

In the following excerpt, Salmon examines the work of James F. Hendry.

Apocalypse

Confusion about the meaning of the term apocalypse began at the outset of the Apocalyptic Movement and plagues subsequent interpretations. Consequently, Dylan Thomas in 1938 can write to John Goodland that although he has not yet seen the Apocalyptic “manifesto,” “… many of your suggested contributors [to the first Apocalyptic anthology] are, I am certain, by any definition, among the least apocalyptic writers alive. …”¹ And Nicholas Moore, one of the brightest poets associated with the Apocalyptic Movement, can write in 1980: “One of my troubles with Apocalypse and apocalyptic is that I have never known exactly what it means.”²

Literary critics have generally avoided defining the term apocalypse, while sometimes discussing what they believe to be the salient features of the...