Marvell

The Complications of Rebellion

In examining Andrew Marvell’s different poems, there is a constant elaboration of the poet’s main theory on life. The greatest case of this occurred in 1681, when Marvel hit an epiphany in his observations. This epiphany first occurred in Marvell’s Mower poems, and were thus elaborated and given final shape in To His Coy Mistress.

The Mower poems and To His Coy Mistress both are similar in that they deal with a man (who is a stand in for Marvell) suddenly discovers that nature is a more freeing environment that the one that man has created. The mower is against gardens because they impose an artificial organization of nature, which inevitably imposes on man as well. This mower realizes that he has to rebel against societies norms which are artificial, and which keep him restricted in terms of expression. Unfortunately, along with this realization comes the more negative implication that very few people share in this viewpoint. This fact is what makes Damon believe that he can’t have a lover. He doesn’t want his viewpoint to be corrupted by anyone. However, Damon can’t be an isolationist because he realizes that, “…there is no escape from love’s tyranny within the bounds of time” (Berthoff, pg. 133). In To His Coy Mistress, Marvell still has realized that he has to rebel against societies norms, but his rebellion has become elaborated to the point where time is included as one of the concepts that he has to rebel against. To His Coy Mistress is a more hopeful poem than the mower poems, because Marvell actually has the belief that he can defeat the constraints of time, opposed to wallowing away in those constraints.

The tragedy inherent in Damon’s position (the reason for why he becomes an isolationist) occurs because, “Damon the Mower seeks freedom not from time but from love, for it is love which has destroyed the ground of his being, his life in nature” (Berthoff, pg. 132). This sentiment is felt when Damon states, “How happy might I still have mow’d,/ Had not love here his Thistles sow’d” (Damon the Mower, lines 65 and 66)! Marvell has run into the problem of expressing his feelings to the reader because, “Though only an authentic countryman could cite the real joys of country life, only a poet would be free to express the joy” (Berthoff, pg. 133). Marvell has lost that innocent feeling that he can express his thoughts to anyone, because his thoughts are of such a negative nature. The writer at the point of writing Damon the Mower doesn’t realize why this is so.

Marvell’s epiphany of man’s relation to nature should be joyful to read, and yet it isn’t because the concept of sharing one’s insights is left out of the equation. Ego naturally has to occur if there’s no one around to share your sentiments. Part of the problem might be that Damon, “…fancies life in all its forms and can see himself in any role” (Berthoff, 134). He would have to in order to basically keep any self integrity in his isolationism. There’s something off in a stanza like the one where Damon states that:

“My mind was once the true survey/Of all these Meadows fresh and gay;/And in the greenness of the Grass/Did see its Hopes as in a Glass/When Juliana came, and she/What I do to the grass, does to my thoughts and me” (The Mower’s Song, lines 1 through 6).

It makes sense that this man would naturally be put off by a person if he were rebelling against how society negatively affects nature. However, who does this man interact with? This first stanza in the poem makes the reader worried for the Mower’s well being, particularly in relation to his mental state. Subconsciously the reader is aware that this mower has to try to fall in love with Juliana, and this is because he simply feels inadequate in his isolation. The mower’s time is running out, and because of this limiting device, he doesn’t realize that there are ways to share his viewpoint in a way that will win over the one that he loves. The mower doesn’t realize any of this because he is rushing to beat the oppressive clock; time is a concept that the mower is never aware that he can rebel against. The mower thinks that, “…love has no place in the scheme of…paradise (Berthoff, pg. 139). This sadness is felt when the mower states that, “For She my Mind hath so displac’d/That I shall never find my home” (Berthoff, pg. 139). What the mower doesn’t realize is that love not only has a place in paradise, but that love is the most important concept for one to uphold if they wish to live in paradise.

The problem with the lack of a brotherhood concept is that once one dies the only consolidation given to an isolationist is not adequate enough. The consolidation doesn’t renew the isolationist’s belief in life. Ann E. Berthoff explains this perfectly when she states that, “This bleeding (the mower’s bleeding) can be staunched by herbs and flowers, but the wounds of love are closed only in death. The sweet address—‘For Death thou art a mower too’—is delivered as if to a brother. It is the only consolidation left to him, the thought of the sympathy like that shown by the Sun himself in greener days” (Berthoff, pg. 139). It doesn’t help that, “Damon is lost and withered, but the meadows flourish” (Berthoff, pg. 139).

An example of this is when Damon states that:

“Unthankful Meadows, could you so/A fellowship so true forego,/And in your gawdy May-games meet,/While I lay trodden under feet” (The Mower’s Song, lines 13-16)?

All of this sadness results because the Mower never believes in passion.

In To His Coy Mistress, Marvell realizes that non-artificial excitement in an ideal can only result from a belief in humanity. It is artificial to not believe in humanity. Marvell realizes in writing To His Coy Mistress that a concept like time is the ultimate societal construct repressing freedom. This concept even subverted Marvell’s ideological beliefs in his mower poems, so that he feels that the only way he can rebel against society is to become an isolationist. Marvell wakes up in To His Coy Mistress.

As soon as Marvell figures out the pertinence of believing in love (and not just as a concept, but as a whole-hearted action) he realizes that there are ways to share his viewpoint in a way that will win over the one that he loves. This concept is the stumbling block that the mower constantly trips over, and doesn’t realize he is missing. The belief in love leads to the realization that one should have a logical argument to back up what they have to say, because one inevitably has to learn to explain the concept that they believe in to someone else. This explanation makes the explainer more confident of their own ideas, because explaining one’s ideas makes that person’s argument more logical in the process. The mower can never explain his beliefs to anyone because he is isolated. The belief in love is what leads Marvell to realize that he needs to utilize the syllogism, in order to win over his lover. The syllogism is what eventually convinces Marvell’s lover that they as a couple need to rebel against society.

Marvell also realizes that the quality that is missing from his rebellion against societal constructs is passion. Passion is not only what the mower lacks; it’s also what the lady who Marvell is trying to seduce lacks. This is what connects the two lovers; they suffer from similar deficiencies that they realize they have to overcome. The lady’s deficiency is, “The lady’s coyness—her reserve, distance, or affectation of disdain—is not merely a frustration for the poet but a ‘crime’: we must make the most of life’s gifts” (Paglia, 49). The carpe diem message results in the poem because of Marvell’s realization of the importance of love. Finding a lover who believes in what you believe in is the same concept as seizing the day, in Marvell’s eyes. This idea is what finally gives Marvell that passion that he was lacking in his mower poems.

Marvell’s rebellion becomes more intricate and grand (along with being more logical) in the processes of the realization that he needs to include passion and a lover in his rebellion against societal norms. It’s almost as if as soon as Marvell realizes that he shouldn’t be an isolationist anymore, he consequently realizes the many different societal constructs that he has to rebel against. Not only is time one of them, but the seduction format is one as well. Marvell realizes in To His Coy Mistress that there is a way to write a seduction poem that completely counters the typical way to write a seduction poem. The seduction poem is intrinsically sexist because the woman being seduced is always the powerless character. Consequently, the woman has to believe that she should be coy, just as Marvel believes that he has to be an isolationist. These assumptions in how one should act exist because of societal norms, and To His Coy Mistress rebels against this concept. This new way of writing a seduction poem occurs because there’s cultural criticism involved in what Marvell is writing about. He’s not simply writing about seduction. Also, “…normally, it is men who blithely roam and women who pine and wait. The couple would defy time too” (Paglia, pgs. 49 to 50). These are qualities not apparent in the mower poems.

The idea of vegetable love is key to what is being discussed in this paper. Now that Marvell believes in brotherhood and love, he uses a metaphor to not only entice his lover to believe in his ideals, but to also spread his cause. When Marvell states that he feels that his, “…vegetable Love should grow/Vaster than Empires, and more slow” (To His Coy Mistress, lines 11 through 12), what he is stating is that his and his lover’s ideals should be spread throughout the land, possibly in the forms of a child. This idea is completely the opposite of an isolationist’s, and is also more successful in terms of creating societal differences. The rebellion is in that this couple will not be deterred in anyway, even though the societal patriarchy deems it fit that they should. Marvell’s rebellion, like his vegetable love, has expanded beyond the parameters that he sets in his mower poems. The rebellion, which initially only deals with society’s artificial norms, has now been expanded to a rebellion against time and a rebellion against how a couple should act. This couple is one made of equals, which is the ultimate form of rebellion on Marvell’s part.

However, first Marvell has to entice this woman to share his viewpoint. The strongest instance of this occurs in stanza 2, where Marvell shows the woman he’s enticing what time does; what in a sense being coy and not consummating love does to the body. Marvell is basically saying to the woman that he is enticing: “…why let life go to waste” (Paglia, pg. 51) as I (previously in the form of the mower) have done in the past? He’s basically saying; don’t make the mistake that I have made in the past, in believing that love does nothing for me. This makes the poem a truly romantic work, opposed to a typical seduction poem which deals with simple usury. This is felt in To His Coy Mistress; particularly when Marvell states:

“And your quaint Honor turn to dust,/And into ashes all my lust:/ The grave’s fine and private place,/But none, I think, do there embrace” (To His Coy Mistress, lines 29-32).

As mentioned earlier, in regards to the mower’s poems, the consolidation is not adequate enough if one is an isolationist; if one is coy and doesn’t believe in love.

The last stanza is a revelatory moment for Marvell because he finally has a partner that believes in his ideals. Now, there’s a lot of work to be done, and the couple know this. They have to beat the oppressive nature of the clock. This is something that Damon the Mower never does. He consequently suffers because of his inaction and because of his not realizing that time is the problem.

The couple’s rebellion is complete in the last stanza. They become what they have always been afraid of becoming, which are “amorous birds of prey” (To His Coy Mistress, line 38). The couple in To His Coy Mistress do not care about the consequences of their actions, and this is because they are of a passionate nature. They aren’t worried in anyway. They are not afraid of the determents in lines 35 and 36; they actually use the “instant fires” to their advantage, in the form of passionate sensuality. They even feel that the limited time accorded them makes their passion more essential, because there is no time to be wasted here. They will devour time, rather than having time devour them (Paglia, pg. 52). The couple won’t let the iron gates of life, or the fact that the Sun never can stand still, get in the way of their accomplishing their goal. Even if their actions don’t prove fruitful for them, the couple will not even let this fact get in their way. The couple’s feeling is that their passion can change the world; can convince people to not be deterred in anyway, like they were in the past.