SOURCE: Markel, Michael H. “Perception and Expression in Marvell's Cavalier Poetry.” In Classic and Cavalier: Essays on Jonson and the Sons of Ben, edited by Claude J. Summers and Ted-Larry Pebworth, pp. 243-253. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1982.

In the following essay, Markel discusses poetry by Andrew Marvell that engages the Cavalier mode while at the same time exploring its conventions and limitations.

As Marvell's major lyrics have become better understood, commentators have turned their attention to his later, satirical poetry, in search of the balance and paradox that characterize his more famous works.¹ In his curious evolution from encomiast of Lovelace to Restoration satirist, Marvell is the greatest enigma of all English poets. Finding a private man who makes sense as Marvell the poet is likely to pose the ultimate scholarly riddle; his bloodless newsletters from Parliament to his constituents in Hull are as bizarre, in...