Intro Paras Flashcards
A Dialogue, between the Resolved Soul and Created Pleasure
Resolved Soul→ The soul is a pilgrim on Earth journeying (man’s time on earth) to God’s great kingdom, as pilgrim it is resolute in hits determination to reach this holy mecca.
Created Pleasure→ Created pleasure refers to all the base sins that distract and deter the pilgrims for reaching enlightenment. Earth being God’s “created” realm. Its temptations are therefore known as created pleasures.
The Fair Singer
Marvell’s poem, The Fair Singer, is dominated by the division of a man’s body and mind, which in this case seems to encompass the soul. All of which is captivated by the Fair Singer’s voice. Naturally, the speaker once again assumes the posture of vanquished combatant, a common position for the helpless lover.
The Gallery
Marvell’s poem, The Gallery, is dominated by The lover here pays tribute to the various moods and guises of his beloved mistress.The poet on his part makes skilful reference to the range of roles and personas any one “beloved” lady assumes – the cruel mistress, the unattainable mistress,the divine mistress…
The Unfortunate Lover
Marvell’s poem, The Unfortunate Lover, depicts the misfortunes which befell a lover. The lover is unfortunate because he was the victim of a series of misfortunes, but he is at the same time fortune because it is only unhappy lovers who become famous while the happy ones are soon forgotten. Makes reference to Shakespeare’s Ages of Man. The speech compares the world to a stage and life to a play and catalogues the seven stages of a man’s life, sometimes referred to as the seven a ges of man: infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, Pantalone, and old age, facing imminent death.
The Definition of Love
Marvell’s poem, The Definition of Love, i s about the nature of the poet’s love, which the poet regards as being unattainable. In the case of a love like this, Hope would prove to be utterly vain and futile because this love can never be achieved.
To His Coy Mistress
Marvell’s poem, To His Coy Mistress, i s about the futile nature of being chaste as the Mistress is often praised for doing or which poets associated with virtue and therefore elevation. In this poem, Marvell mocks convention of Petrachan love poetry with its hyperbole and takes a realist stance on what to do in the face of mortality and imminent decay. It is a Momento Mori (remember you will die) → Carpe Diem (seize the day) poem.
Metaphysical poetry → trying to find the verbal equivalent for states of mind and feeling.
Eyes and Tears
Marvell’s poem, Eyes and Tears, is one of Marvell’s religious poems, relying heavily upon religious imagery. In early modern England, religious sorrow was seen as a form of spiritual dialogue between the soul and God, expressing how divine grace operates at the level of human emotion. “Tear” poems or “the literature of tears, enjoyed a brief period of fashion, in the form of “a body of Counter-Reformation devotional works in both poetry and prose depicting Mary Magdalen’s remorse at her first meeting with Christ and at his tomb, and St Peter’s remorse after his betrayal.” While the poem presents the obviously paradoxical, superbly metaphysical argument that tears are superior to the eyes, which produce them, it is also a poem of balance. Each human joy is counterbalanced with an equal weight of sorrow.
The Coronet
Marvell’s poem, The Coronet, is one of Marvell’s religious poems, focusing on the crucifixion of Christ and his attempt to correct this “wrong” by giving him a crown in the form of his poetry of praise. However he then realises that despite naming the intention of this poem as a dedication to the Lord, his real intentions are personal and selfish being more concerned with gaining praise and fame for his poetry and skill than actual servitude and devotion.
An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland
Marvell’s poem, An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland, is one of Marvell’s political poems, focusing on Oliver Cromwell, who was a parliamentarian playing a huge role in the usurpation of King Charles I, he was also a strong advocate for the King’s execution. He was Lord Protector of England (which included Wales at the time), Scotland, and Ireland. As a ruler, he executed an aggressive and effective foreign policy. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. The Royalists returned to power along with King Charles II in 1660, and they had his corpse dug up, hung in chains, and beheaded.
He is considered a regicidal dictator by historians such as David Sharp, a military dictator by Winston Churchill, but a hero of liberty by John Milton, Thomas Carlyle, and Samuel Rawson Gardiner, In a 2002 BBC poll in Britain, Cromwell, sponsored by military historian Richard Holmes, was selected as one of the ten greatest Britons of all time. However, his measures against Catholics in Ireland have been characterised as genocidal or near-genocidal, and in Ireland his record is harshly criticised. The poem reflects the mixed feelings and attitudes towards Lord Cromwell.
The Picture of Little T.C in a Prospect of Flowers
Marvell’s poem, The Picture of Little T.C. in a Prospect of Flowers, is a Memento Mori Poem. The word “ Prospect” here refers not only to the meaning view but the “contemplation of potential”. The “Little T.C.” of the poem is assumed to be Theophila Cornewall, whom Marvell saw in a garden when she was between six and eight years old. Her father was Humphrey Cornewall, an English MP whose family were well known to Marvell and his father. Our Theophilia Cornewall, or Little T.C., was born in 1644 but had an older sister with the same name, who died when only a few days old.
Young Love
Marvell’s poem, Young Love, is a poem that focuses on the innocence of youth , especially in contrast to the complications of love in later life such as the complexities of courtship, the interventions of external forces as well as social constructs the “cruel” mistress, the mistress “unattained”, that will prevent a successful love. Young love overcomes all these obstacles by making the mistress fall in love with the poet before all these obstacles develop.
The Nymph Complaining for the Death of her Fawn
Marvell’s poem, The Nymph Complaining for the Death of her Fawn, is a pastoral elegy (lament for the dead) with the themes of innocence and youth once again, especially when juxtaposed against the “cruel and ungentle” men whose love is “unconstant”, “counterfeit” and untamable.
Upon the Hill and Grove at Bilbrough
Marvell’s poem, Upon the Hill and Grove at Bilbrough, is one of Marvell’s political poems wherein he praises his employer Lord Fairfax (Marvell was a tutor for his daughter) who was a parliamentarian (revolutionist) alongside Cromwell and was instrumental to the cause but who voted against the beheading of Charles and gave up his position upon the success of the revolution. In this poem, Marvell uses his description of the estate to praise Lord Fairfax and his “moderate” qualities, knowing when to withdraw, especially in opposition to the Cromwell “elemental lightning” that is as much a symbol of power as it is of destruction, his intimate knowledge of the estate also flaunted his close relationship to Lord Fairfax.
The Garden
Marvell’s poem, The Garden, becomes a space of both pastoral innocence, a place to which we can retire from society, it argues that a live of contemplative thinking is better than a life of action and that this contemplation can only be achieved within the green space of the garden. A life of action on the other hand is “incessant” and provides no end to the countless conquests one has to embark on for glory in the various fields. In the garden, one is able to enjoy both the pleasures of the mind and sense.
On a Drop of Dew
Marvell’s poem, On a Drop of Dew, is one of Marvell’s spiritual poems and is riddled with geometric conceit and religious imagery. The poem details the nature of the soul as a droplet from the eternal fountain of Heaven and God through an association of the physical characteristics of the droplet and the spiritual qualities of the Soul. Note that spiritual and religious poems are not the same thing, a poem can be spiritual but not religious.
