Beginnings
In the "Nativity Ode," Milton uses the beginning of a new era in Christian history to explore beginnings more broadly. As he describes everything that Christ’s birth will bring, Milton also looks forward to the beginning of his career as a poet in the world, specifically the role his poetry will play in English politics. At the time Milton wrote the "Nativity Ode," England was on the cusp of the civil wars that would lead to the execution of King Charles. Milton’s poem anticipates the beginning of a new era in English history, and the beginning of a new era in his life.
Time
In the “Nativity Ode,” Milton is constantly manipulating time. His poem jumps forward and back, as he anticipates everything that Christ’s birth will bring, then reminds himself that these events have not yet occurred. Because of this freedom with his chronology, Milton is able to anticipate the final event in Christian history: the end of the secular world and the final redemption which he describes as the moment when “Time will run back / And fetch the age of gold.” This kind of time is not yet possible at the moment Milton writes, but he anticipates it poetically by himself writing forward and backward—breaking time in his poetry.
Epic Poetry
Milton frequently falls back on the conventions of classical epic poetry to describe the birth of Christ in the “Nativity Ode.” By fusing his religious theme with epic poetry, Milton takes his poem into the political sphere. Classical epics were written to describe the rise and fall of empires, and to the extent that Milton uses the form, he implies that he too is writing about the formation of a new nation. Most immediately, he’s imagining the birth of Christ as the beginning of a new era in Christian history—but he suggests that he is also thinking of a more immediate political event—a revolution against King Charles—by making frequent allusions to the English court.
