The Mower, Against Gardens (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Andrew Marvell
- First Published: 1681
- Type of Work: Pastoral
- Genres: Poetry, Pastoral
- Subjects: Nature, Rural or country life, Spiritual life or spirituality, Incest, Flowers, Seventeenth century, Ethics, Corruption, Bible, biblical imagery, or biblical symbolism, Hedonism, Plants, Gardens or gardening
The Poem
In the Miscellaneous Poems of Andrew Marvell, published posthumously, “The Mower, Against Gardens” stands first in a set of four pastoral poems centering on the figure of the mower. A significant proportion of Marvell’s poetry is pastoral by nature, but, as here, Marvell uses the pastoral convention in a most original way to ask fundamental questions about man’s fall, his passions, and the possibility of (re)gaining lost innocence within nature. Traditionally, pastoralism has opposed the innocence of country life (typified by the shepherd) to the...
[The entire page is 1373 words long]
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