Andrew Marvell

Front Cover
CUP Archive, Apr 18, 1985 - Literary Criticism - 191 pages
This introductory study provides a comprehensive and coherent account of all Andrew Marvell's poetry for those with no specialised knowledge of seventeenth-century literature and history. After a brief account of Marvell's career as student, private tutor, civil servant, and Member of Parliament, there follow six chapters dealing with the major body of lyrical poetry according to subject matter or thematic context. Since inexperienced readers often encounter difficulties with the allusive nature of Marvell's art, it is a particular feature of this book that it provides sufficient information on the literary, cultural and political context of the work without sacrificing an appreciation of the aesthetic qualities and the ironic wit and burnout for which Marvell's verse is celebrated. In the final chapter Dr Wilcher discusses the public writing in verse and prose which occupied Marvell's later years in relation to political developments under Oliver Cromwell and Charles II.
 

Contents

Silent judgements
11
Loves and lovers
25
Pastoral and Puritan
59
Innocence and experience
103
Paradises only
146
Panegyrics and satires
165
Select bibliography
185
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases