Natural details in the poetry of Andrew Marvell - eTheses Repository

316 Pages·2012·20.55 MB·English

by  Robert Wilcher

NATURAL DETAILS IN THE POETRY OF
ANDREW KARTELL
Robert Wilcher
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements
for the degree of Master of Arts in the University
of Birmingham*
May 1967
University of Birmingham Research Archive

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..V ./
ii
TABLE OF CONTE ITS
Page
Synopsis .................... iii
Note on Text ................... v
PART I: I^HODUCTOiiY
Chapter I Introduction ............ 2
Chapter II A Survey of Critical Attitudes to
Harvell's Use of Natural Details . . 12
PART II: NATURAL DETAILS IN MARVELL'S POETRY
Chapter III Provenance ............. 71
Chapter IV Type and Impact .......... 140
PART III: NATURE IN MARVELL'S POETRY
Chapter V Nature as a Concept ........ 171
Chapter VI Nature as a Reality ........ 203
PART IV: THE USE OP NATURAL DETAILS IN MARVELL'S POETRY
Introductory ................... 219
Chapter VII Figurative UB© of Natural Details . . 224
Chapter VIII Objective Use of Natural Details . . 249
Chapter IX Subjective Use of Natural Details . . 279
Chapter X Conclusion ............. 293
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
I Editions of Poems ............... 296
II Critical Material about Marvell ........ 299
III Background Material from Sixteenth and Seventeenth
Centuries .................. 305
i
IV General Background Material .......... 306
ill
SYNOPSIS
This thesis sets out to examine the natural details
that occur In Marveil's poetry, and to discuss the literary
questions * both historical and critical - which such an
examination brings to light* It is divided into four parts.
The first part is introductory: chapter one suggests that an
Important change took place in the choice and function of
natural details in poetry during the seventeenth and eight-
i i
eenth centuries; chapter two provides a historical survey of
Marvell scholarship and criticism, and traces the emergence
of various attitudes to the poet's use of natural details,
showing how these reflect changing attitudes to poetry and
nature. Part II Isolates the details from their context*:
chapter three discusses the sources from which they were
drawn, bringing together and adding to the Information that
has been discovered concerning Marvell's familiarity with
the natural histories, and his indebtedness to other poets;
chapter four deals with the sensuous and intellectual
qualities of individual details. Part III considers the
relevance to the poetry of contemporary views about nature:
*,
in chapter five as a philosophical or theological concept;
in chapter six as the physical environment. The final part
attempts to describe the natural details in context: the
three chapters, seven to nine, deal with various aspects of
ly
the relationship between details from nature and the meaning
they convey, and Include accounts of formal imagery, emblems,
conceits, description, and "nature poetry*1.
The bibliographies at the end list the books referred to
in the course of the thesis.
NOTE* All the quotations from Marvell'e poetry in the text
are taken from The Poeme and Letters of Andrew Marvell* ed, ,
H.M.Margoliouth, 2nd. ed., 2 vole. (Oxford, 1952).
PAET I
INTRODUCTORY
Chapter I
INTRODUCTION
In 1882, Oakar Dolch published a short treatise on Th
Love of Nature in Early XngliBh Poetry (Dresden). His
introductory remarks include the following statement:
There lies an endless treasure of meaning hid in
Nature, but just as much or as little, as the soul
of every one can see in her. (p.3)
He should hare added that there can be more than one kind
of "meaning", and that the meaning any given poet can see
in nature will depend on a good deal more than the quality
of his individual soul. The meaning found in nature will be
conditioned largely by what the poet is looking for, and this
in turn will be conditioned by the preoccupations - theological,
philosophical, scientific, aesthetic - of his age's culture.
Even the experience of seeing will differ, not only from
«
individual to individual, but also from era to erou Compare
three ways of looking at a flower, in poems taken from widely
separated periods of English poetry. First, Chaucer's praise
of the daisy in the Prologue to "The Legend of Good Women":
1
See the discussion of the idiosyncrasies of visual percep
tion in Keats, Wordsworth and others: Robert Graves, "How
Poets See'1 , The Crowning Privilege (Penguin Books, 1959),
PP.314-327.
. of al the floures in the mede,
Thanne love I most thiee floures white and rede,
Swiche as men callen da.ysyes in our toun.
To hem have I so gret affeccioun,
A0 I seyde erst, whanno comer, is the May,
That in my bed ther daweth me no day
That I nam up and walkyng in the mede
To aeen this flour ayein the sonne sprede,
Whan it upryeeth erly by the morwe.
That bliaful sighte softneth al my sorwe,
So glad am I9 whan that I have presence
Of it, to doon it alie reverence,
An she that is of alle floures flour,
Fulfilled of al vertu and honour,
And evere ilyke faire, and fressh of hewe;
And I love it, and ever ylifee new©,
And eve re ohal, til that myn herte dye.
Al swere I nat, of this I wol nat lye;
There loved no wight hotter in his lyvo.
And whan that hit ye eve, I renne blyve,
As sone as evere the sonne gynneth we$te,
To seen this flour, how it wol go to reste,
For fere of nyght, eo hateth she dsrknesse.
Hire chere IB pleynly sprad in the brightneese
Of the sonne, for ther yt wol unclose.
Alias, that I ne had Englypsh, ryme or prose,
Suffisant this flour to preyee aryghtj
But helpeth, ye that han konnyng and myght,
Ye lovers that kan make of sentement;
In this cas oghte ye be diligent
To forthren me somewhat in my labour,
Whethir ye ben with the leef or with the flour*
(Text F, 11.41-72, The Works of Geoffrey^Chaucer.
ed. F.N.Robinson, 2nd. ed. (London, 1957)» PP.
4.83-484.)
Chaucer's devotion to the daisy is charming, almost child
like in its naivety, and his delight in contemplating the
flower comes through in the freshness of the verse. But in
fact, this passage is not so origin&l as itr air of spontaneity
might suggest. F.IT.Robinson provides Borne of the background
in his introduction to the poem:
... there is evidence, in both French and English