22/3/07 - English Literature - Andrew Marvell: Writing and Revolution

Marvell is known as a pastoral poet, which is not technically correct. He also wrote poems about Cromwell, and satirical poems during and about the Restoration. He was the MP for Hull, so he had a genuine political status, yet he is still much more associated with Thomas Fairfax and his family (remember Upon Appleton House). His most problematical works are his Cromwell poems. They were published posthumously, but soon expunged due to their dubious and dangerous nature. Marvell seemed to negotiate between retirement from the public and political world and public and political involvement, represented in his poems. He seems to have struggled with private debates over which was the 'good' life: retirement from, or involvement in.

What vision of politics does Marvell show in his poems? He explores what politics is.

It could be important to know about the modern revolutions that were happening around the time his poetry was written, as they were deeply political and probably influenced his works. Modern revolutions were radical, cataclysmic political transformations or a upending of an old political structure for something radically new. Revolting involved breaking the law, so it must question old law and reinforce new ones. Revolutions are also necessarily violent. They appeal to higher and more fundamental orders than the institution that is being revolted against, so they represent a higher, more fundamental law, such as God or another political authority like 'the people'. They were problematic, because 'the people' could not have a concrete institutional structure and had to initially break the law to found a new political structure.

For Marvell, Cromwell embodies the notion of revolutionary violence. Legitimate purposes are sealed when blood is sacrificed (in this case, the king's).

In his poetry, Marvell plays out the revolution as the throwing out of a political institution with the hope of establishing a new one, although they are not easily maintained or obtainable.