22 pages • 44 minutes read
Andrew MarvellAn Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1681A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Historical Context
Marvell wrote his ode during one of the most significant transitions in Britain's history. King Charles I took to the throne in 1625 and believed that the king’s only responsibility was to God. Charles held a tyrannical rule over Britain, Scotland, and Ireland, and used his role as king to fund a luxurious lifestyle. Charles also engaged in long, costly wars with Spain and France.
Throughout Charles’s reign, his haphazard and tyrannical rule grated against the elected Parliament. In the early years of Charles’s rule, he used his position as king to dissolve Parliament three times until, in 1929, he dismissed it to rule the country alone. Parliaments, however, continued to reestablish themselves and call for reform. The king’s behavior led to civil wars throughout Great Britain, first in Scotland (starting in 1637), Ireland (starting in 1641), and England (starting in 1642 after Charles broke into the House of Commons to demand that five members of parliament surrender). Eight months later, Charles declared war with Parliament.
Oliver Cromwell served as commander-in-chief of the Parliament of England’s armies for much of the English Civil War. After years of fighting, Charles was captured by Scottish forces at the battle of Naseby on June 14, 1645. Charles was handed over to the English parliamentary forces in 1647, and was publicly executed for high treason in January 1649. Marvell’s ode, occasioned by Cromwell’s return from Ireland and Charles’s public execution, was written about a year after these events, and before Cromwell came to rule the British Isles as Lord Protector in 1653.
Literary Context
Samuel Johnson first described the term “metaphysical poetry” in his biography of English poet Abraham Cowley. In the biography, Johnson uses the term to disparage poets who followed John Donne in writing verse that targets the intellect rather than emotion. The term defines English and continental European poets whose work emphasizes illustrative conceits and poetry’s spoken qualities.
Unlike many other poetic movements, the metaphysical poets are a diverse and incoherent group. Marvell’s ode shares some similarities with more archetypal metaphysical poets. It also shares many similarities with later Augustan and Restoration poets like John Dryden and Alexander Pope who disparaged metaphysical poetry for its unnatural qualities.
The 18th-century Augustan poets emphasized political and satirical verse, and questioned whether the individual or society is a more valuable subject. They also revived ancient Greek and Latin forms of poetry to use as a vehicle for political satire. Marvell’s ode uses a Latin form to engage with similar ideas and subjects.
