J. Marvell's "The Coronet"

J1. The editors of NAEL follow all five main modern collected editions of Marvell's poetry in printing the first sixteen lines with their particular indentation pattern, while the last ten lines (17-26) have a left-justified left margin with no indentation. For what reasons of content, theme, or structure might this typography be appropriate?

J2. How does the poem's rhyme scheme harmonize with the poem's typography and theme?

J3. How does the organization or structure of the poem form a kind of wreath?

J4. In its themes and style, which seventeenth-century poet's or poets' work does this poem most resemble, and how?

J5. (a) What is the meaning of "for" in line 1? (b) What is the meaning of "store" in line 9? (c) What is the antecedent of "them" in line 17? (d) What is the antecedent of "thou" in line 19? (e) What is the antecedent or referent of "these" in line 23? (f) What is the antecedent of "he" in line 23? (g) What is the antecedent of "they" in line 25? (h) What is the antecedent of "their" in line 25?

J6. What are the multiple relevant senses of "slippery" in line 20?

K. Marvell's "Bermudas"

Note: Marvell is an amazing figure in the era, managing to be a pure lyric poet and coarse political verse satirist; a secular poet (of pastoral poems and love poems) and religious poems; and a Puritan-sympathizer, with a post in the Puritan Interregnum government, yet a man with Royalist ties who achieved favor in Charles II's Restoration government--this "pull," among other things, helping to save Marvell's poetic idol, John Milton, from more serious consequences than the house arrest because of Milton's tract justifying Charles I's execution. The background of this poem is the flight of the Puritans to the New World to escape what they conceived to be the oppression of Royalist, Anglican (and Catholic) England -- like the groups that at about this time also fled to America! For the Puritans, an ecclesiastical hierarchy, like Bishops, equated Anglicans and Catholics, and whatever other religious group might desire this element that the Puritans believed had no basis from a strict reading of the Bible.

K1. (a) How does Marvell express praise and sympathy for the Puritans and their cause in this poem? (b) How does each of the poem's three stanzas function as a unit, and together as a structure (e.g., symmetrical verse-paragraph quatrains serving as introduction and conclusion, versus the long middle verse paragraph)? How is the long middle verse paragraph a hymn in more than one sense? (c) How do anaphora and parallelism function structurally and thematically (conveying something about God and the relationship of God to the Puritan wayfarers) in lines 11, 13, 17, 21, 29 (and comparable parallel verbs elsewhere)? (d) What might be the appropriateness of rhymed couplets to theme, content, and characterization in this poem?

K2. (a) What is the appropriateness of the conventional metaphor in the second line ("ocean's bosom") to the particular group spoken about in the poem, Marvell's attitude toward them, and the purpose of their quest? How might it tie in with allusions in the poem to Genesis 1, and Genesis 2 of the Bible? Where else in the poem are there allusions to Genesis 1-3? Conveying what ideas or themes? (b) What thematic ideas are conveyed by the periphrasis for the ocean, "wat'ry maze"(6), and what allusion to the Bible, suggesting the quest for a new Eden after "expulsion" from the old (= Royalist England)? (c) How might there be a faint allusion to the books of Jonah and Job in line 9, and to convey what ideas about the Puritans? How does this line connect to line 28, suggesting what ideas? (d) What ideas are suggested by the metaphor for the new land in line 11? (e) How are the visual imagery and figurative language of color used thematically (to say something about the Puritans or their new home) in several places in the poem, both individually and interconnectively? For example, in the metaphor of "green night"(18), what is suggested about the new land, and how? (f) How are visual imagery, tactile imagery, gustatory imagery, auditory imagery, and kinetic imagery (imagery referring to motion) used thematically in the poem?

K3. What do the Biblical allusions in lines 15 (Genesis 8; 1 Kings 17) 23, 25-26, 30, and 31-32 suggest about the relationship of the group's enterprise to God and the new land, and how? (A concordance to the Bible is a valuable reference work to become familiar with; entries for pearl might be consulted, for instance.)

K4. How do rhyme, rhythm, and sense cooperate in lines 39-40?

L. Marvell's "The Nymph Complaining for the Death of Her Fawn"

L1. (a) The word "troopers" in the poem's first line, as good annotated editions of Marvell's poems point out, did not come into use in English until 1640, and was first applied to soldiers in the Presbyterian Covenanting army (forces allied with the Puritans), and soon became associated with Cromwell's army generally (on the side of the Puritans). Thus, the allusion immediately gives this pastoral lyric political overtones. Also, as Robert M. Adams' notes in the second paragraph (which you should read) of his NAEL intro to Milton's Lycidas, how may the pastoral genre be used to talk about something beyond nature or the natural setting? How is this genre so used in this poem? What parallels, analogues, symbols, or images in the poem might be read as having some application to the political and religious conflict of the time? (b) What might the parallels or contrasts be between troopers and fawn, nymph and fawn, nymph and Delio, nymph and troopers, Sylvio and troopers, and any of these and the natural world? What is Marvell saying about the effects or impact of political and religious conflict, breaking out in war, on the environs (landscape, flora, and fauna [animals, people]) of the combatants? About parallels or contrasts between the combatants and their environs? Where does love (nymph and fawn, nymph and Sylvio, female and male genders or roles) fit in all of this?

L2. How are the meter, line length, and rhyme scheme characterizationally appropriate to the speaker?

L3. (a) What is the referent or antecedent of "this" in "this warm life-blood"(19)? That is, whose life blood, exactly? (b) What is the referent or antecedent of "This" in line 34? (c) What is the referent of "this" in line 39? (d) What is the referent of "it" in line 41? (e) What is the referent of "Thy" in line 53?

L4. What things might the fawn symbolize, and how is this symbolism conveyed?

M. Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress"

M1. How does each verse paragraph function as a separate unit in a logical argument? What signal words or phrases in each part (in lines 1, 21, 32, and 45) lead logically to the next part, and how do they do so?

M2. What sly joke and comic sexual innuendo can be found in the time periods allotted to the praise in lines 13-17?

N. Marvell's "The Definition of Love"

N1. How do two differing sets of controlling images clearly demarcate the structure of the poem into two halves, stanzas 1-4 and 5-8?

N2. How is it appropriate for, and what are the thematic suggestions of the metaphor of, Hope having a tinsel wing (7-8)?

N3. How does the metal imagery of stanza 2 thematically or symbolically contrast with that in stanzas 3 and 5?

P. Marvell's "The Picture of Little T.C. in a Prospect of Flowers"

P1. What meanings might "golden days"(2) have, and how?

P2. What basic compliment does the poet-speaker pay the little girl in stanzas 2-3?

P3. What is the implied metaphor in line 20? Wheels of what? And how might the girl's eyes resemble what they are compared to, exactly?

P4. What is the exact dictionary or literal sense of "strive"(21), considering that it is antithetical to line 22?

P5. How, paradoxically, are the little girl's power and vulnerability both shown by way of her relationship to nature in stanzas 1, 4, and 5?

Q. Marvell's "The Mower Against Gardens"

Q1. How does the Mower find gardens exemplify and symbolize humanity's unnaturalness and sinfulness or irreligiosity or immorality (the latter coinciding with a Biblical allusion in the concept of or reference to gardens--e.g., in lines 1-4)?

Q2. What specific human vice or vices, sin or sins, may be suggested in the personifications in lines 2-3, 12-14, 25, and 27, and how?

Q3. What is the relevant dictionary sense of "paint" in line 12, especially by way of lines 13-14?

Q4. What is the irony in lines 15-16 created by the metaphor "onion root"?

R. Marvell's "Damon the Mower"

R1. How might the organization of the poem be seen as stanzas 1-5, 6-8, and 9-11?

R2. What may be the referent or antecedents of "they" in line 55?

R3. How do stanzas 1, 5, 9, and 11 contain a comic or satiric blend of realistic or comic pastoral, with Petrarchan amorous verse?

R4. How do rhyme, rhythm, and meter cooperate to express and suit Damon's occupation and personality?

S. Marvell's "The Mower to the Glow-Worms"

S1. How is the structure or organization of the poem divided into the two parts of stanzas 1-3 vs. stanza 4 (reversal), as partly reflected by periodic sentence structure?

S2. How is Juliana's importance or power conveyed through the poem's overall structure, as well as the periodic sentence? S3. What pun is there on "higher" in line 7?

T. Marvell's "The Mower's Song"

T1. What is the thematic or characterizational or mimetic effectiveness of the use of an Alexandrine in the refrain line?

T2. How does the use of a refrain suggest something about the speaker's activity, as well as his mental or emotional state?

U. Marvell's "The Garden"

U1. About the celebrated lines from this poem--"[Mind] Annihilating all that's made/ To a green thought in a green shade"(47-48)--the editors of NAEL state in footnote 9: "A famous instance of Marvell's endlessly evocative simplicity." What do these lines seem to mean, in terms of Marvell's praise of pastoral in this poem?

V. Marvell's "An Horatian Ode: Upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland"

V1. (a) As noted by the editors in NAEL in footnote 1 to the poem, "Horatian" implies "cool and balanced judgment." Look up Horatian ode in HTL, also. Where in the poem is the Marvellian speaker critical or admonishing toward Cromwell, as well as encomiastic or panegyric? (b) How is the poem complex--both favorable and unfavorable--in its presentation of Charles I (stanzas 12-18)? (c) What are the attitudes and ideas about the public, the common people (including Puritans), suggested or conveyed in the poem?

V2. (a) What is the structure of the poem; how many parts does it have? (b) How does this poem compare to or contrast with Milton's sonnet "To the Lord General Cromwell"? How do both poems use the same metaphor (Marvell in stanzas 3-4; Milton in lines 1-4)? Are the uses comparable or contrasting or both? (c) How is the antonomasia* for Charles I in stanza 14 censorious? How is the stanza also critical of the common people, presumably including some Puritans? (d) What tone or significance do all the poem's abstract personifications help impart? (d) How are diction, imagery, and figurative language (including metaphor, simile, and pun--as in the play on keener [59]) used to convey ideas and attitudes?

V3. How do line length, stanza length, and rhyme scheme help express any of the poem's content?