Moving from the theoretical assumption that the attempt to recreate the mythical garden of delights implies a complex series of oppositions and paradoxes, this essay investigates The Garden, Andrew Marvell’s last short poem. What seems a mere celebration of the joys of natural life as opposed to urban artificiality has prompted numerous, and diametrically contrasting, critical readings of the lyric: by defining it either as a ‘rural’ or as a ‘pastoral’ poem, even as a ‘political allegory’, critics still debate its genre. The Garden can be interpreted as a summa of Marvell’s previous lyrics: by thoroughly rejecting eroticism for the sake of a total disintegration in the world of nature, the poem obliquely represents a nostalgic recreation of the primeval state of androgyny – «this delicious Solitude» (l. 16).

‘Annihilating all that’s made / To a green Thought in a green Shade’. The Garden by Andrew Marvell and the Myth of Creation

maria milena romero allué
2018-01-01

Abstract

Moving from the theoretical assumption that the attempt to recreate the mythical garden of delights implies a complex series of oppositions and paradoxes, this essay investigates The Garden, Andrew Marvell’s last short poem. What seems a mere celebration of the joys of natural life as opposed to urban artificiality has prompted numerous, and diametrically contrasting, critical readings of the lyric: by defining it either as a ‘rural’ or as a ‘pastoral’ poem, even as a ‘political allegory’, critics still debate its genre. The Garden can be interpreted as a summa of Marvell’s previous lyrics: by thoroughly rejecting eroticism for the sake of a total disintegration in the world of nature, the poem obliquely represents a nostalgic recreation of the primeval state of androgyny – «this delicious Solitude» (l. 16).
2018
978-3-8260-6444-9
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11390/1124238
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