Andrew Marvell Critical Essay | Critical Essay by James F. Carens

Critical Essay by James F. Carens

SOURCE: "Andrew Marvell's Cromwell Poems," in Bucknell Review, Vol. VII, No. 1, May, 1956, pp. 41-70.

In the following essay on "Horatian Ode" and "The First Anniversary of the Government Under O.C.," Carens reconsiders Marvell's contradictory depiction of Cromwell.

I

Though Andrew Marvell's Horatian Ode has often been commented upon, two later poems in honor of Oliver Cromwell have received little attention. It is not surprising that A Poem Upon the Death of O. C. has been largely ignored, for it is overlong and without real unity. Lines such as these are, of course, splendid:

Unfortunately, however, this is one of the few sections of the poem that deeply engages our feelings; and, if we remember these lines, we also remember the artificiality of the conceit—a real example of metaphysical excess—by which Marvell attempts to relate...
(read more)