The Poems and Some Satires of Andrew Marvell

Andrew Marvell (1621 - 1678)

Andrew Marvell is a man of many faces, in both poetry and politics. A master of the pastoral dialogue, he can equally well fire out a Juvenalian satire; congratulate the new republic while also applauding the murdered king’s fortitude; and balance a solemn platitude against a ribald joke within the space of two lines. This constitutional habit of seeing two sides of the same issue owes much to Ben Jonson’s influence although the younger poet uses this talent to create irony like Donne’s rather than for the appearance of frank honesty as in Jonson. In “The Garden” he is as at home with sensory luxury as Herrick, but his paradoxes and metaphysical conceits, in “The Definition of Love,” rival Donne’s. One may suspect that the couplet form, especially in the satires, encourages this doubleness, for where the rhymes are muted it is not found, as in the straight pathos of the “The Nymph’s Complaining for the Death of Her Fawn,” enjambment obscuring rhymes by tending to make phrases end in the middle of lines rather than at line-end.

In the Satires, Marvell shifts from arch sneering to savage excoriation, and then to rollicking triple-rhythm burlesque. It seems at times that he must certainly be added to someone’s hit list, but his insults are so brazen and he appears to have so much fun in making scandalous accusations that he appears to enjoy the immunity of a court jester.

(Summary by Thomas A. Copeland)

Genre(s): Historical Fiction, Humorous Fiction, Satire

Language: English

Keyword(s): seventeenth century (15), metaphysical (9)

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 00 Introduction and Biographical Note Christine Rottger
00:50:10
Play 01 Poems: Upon Appleton House Thomas A. Copeland
00:43:39
Play 02 Poems: Upon the Hill and Grove at Billborow etc. Thomas A. Copeland
00:50:20
Play 03 Poems: Eyes and Tears etc. Thomas A. Copeland
00:46:48
Play 04 Poems: First Anniversary of the Government Thomas A. Copeland
00:28:46
Play 05 Poems: A Poem upon the Death of His late Highness the Lord Protector etc. Thomas A. Copeland
00:32:55
Play 06 Satires: Flecknoe, an English Priest at Rome Christine Rottger
00:11:02
Play 07 Satires: Tom May's Death, The Character of Holland Thomas A. Copeland
00:18:47
Play 08 Satires: Last Instructions to a Painter about the Dutch Wars Thomas A. Copeland
00:58:02
Play 09 Satires: To The King and The Loyal Scot Christine Rottger
00:22:52
Play 10 Satires: Clarendon's House-Warming Thomas A. Copeland
00:08:40
Play 11 Satires: Upon his House, Epigram upon his Grandchildren and Farther Instructions to a Painter Christine Rottger
00:05:47
Play 12 Satires: On Blood’s Stealing the Crown, Royal Resolutions, An Historical Poem Thomas A. Copeland
00:24:14
Play 13 Satires: Advice to a Painter to Draw the Duke of York etc. Christine Rottger
00:24:42
Play 14 Satires: A Poem on the Statue in Stocks-Market, The Statue at Charing Cross, A Dialogue between Two Horses Thomas A. Copeland
00:22:26
Play 15 Latin and Greek Poems Thomas A. Copeland
Christine Rottger
00:06:24