The Garden

 

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The Garden

“The Garden” is a poem crafted by Andrew Marvell, and in recent times is reputed to be his third most examined poem (Wheeler 163). As far as the construction of the poem is concerned, it has nine stanzas of iambic tetrameter couplets (Wheeler 20).  “The Garden.” In short the themes are the praise of solitude, the virtues of writing, and the speaker’s progression of outlook from physical to spiritual.

One of the first that presents itself is the belief that solitude is ideal. The poem even states explicitly: “Society is all but rude,/To this delicious solitude.” (line 16) As for why the speaker seems to think that this is so, by examining the beginning of the poem it is clear that the speaker is disillusioned with the activities of mankind. As Wheeler stated when he also noted this theme, the “crowns” that are mentioned in the first stanza could be symbolic of humans rewarding others for their work (96). However what seems to be important here is that the word “vainly” is also mentioned within the first line when the speaker is talking about others. It is possible then that the reason that Marvell’s speaker in this poem ends up wishing to be alone is due to the fact that he sees the workings and status of others as petty and meaningless. This theme goes on to color the rest of the poem and eventually leads the speaker to try and broaden his horizons elsewhere, namely in nature.

As for what the speaker seems to find, the second theme that arises is the belief that writing is a valuable art. One of the most potent lines to illustrate this point is found when Marvell’s speaker writes the name of the tree into the tree itself even though he dislikes that others imbed the name of their lover into the tree (lines 20-25). If the speaker in “The Garden” disapproves and yet mimics this action in turn, then it demonstrates that the act of writing is a valid art form so long as it is done for something less transient than a lover’s whim.

One of the final points in this poem is that the speaker seems to undergo a transformation, where he views the world through an increasingly spiritual perspective. Starting from stanza five the speaker seems to first focus on the beauty of the garden, then he examines the virtues of the mind, and finally his soul seems to leave his body (lines 33-56). What is interesting about this is that Wheeler noticed this theme as well, but stated explicitly that there is no connection between the garden itself and this evolution in the speaker’s perspective since being in a beautiful surrounding would make it more difficult to retreat to the playground of the mind (98-99). Though this is an interesting observation, it is possible that the garden itself is connected directly to the speaker’s progression. After all, the poem states directly: “Stumbling on melons as I pass,/Ensnared with flowers, I fall on grass.” (lines 39-40). This gives the feeling that the garden itself is playing an active role and does directly interact with the speaker. In addition if the speaker did indeed fall, then it is likely that the is looking at either the sky or the ground beneath thim. Therefore, it is possible then that he is no longer looking directly at the garden’s beauty and therefore will not be as distracted by it. Tying this together, it is possible that the garden did have a direct role in making the speaker slow down and begin reflecting on larger matters such as the nature of the mind and the sensation of the spirit.

In conclusion, Andrew Marvell has demonstrated in “The Garden” that the ideas and thoughts of a human mind can be both expressed and affected by elements found within nature. The beauty within this realization is that nature then can be used as a mirror and partner to assist an individual with his own personal evolution.

By Manoj Sir