The Garden (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Andrew Marvell
- First Published: 1681
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Love or romance, Flowers, Edible plants, Trees, Time, Fruit, Plants, Gardens or gardening
The Poem
“The Garden,” which comprises nine eight-line stanzas, opens with the assertion that people ordinarily confuse themselves (“amaze,” with a possible pun on the “maze,” a common feature of seventeenth century formal gardens) by pursuing recognition in only one field, as represented by wreaths associated with military (palm), civic (oak), and poetic (bay) achievements. Against those conventional modes of activity, the speaker, who enters the poem as “I” in the next stanza, argues for the ease and retirement embodied in the combined vegetation of the...
[The entire page is 1284 words long]
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