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This thesis is concerned with the life and poetry of Andrew Marvell as these reflect a literary and social period, 1600-1660, with quite distinctive characteristics. It is argued that Marvell led a dualistic and compartmentalised life, and that he was in this a typical figure of the age. The dualism is traced in his public career as a Civil Servant and parliamentarian, and in his private career as a poet. It is further maintained that the best poetry of Andrew Marvell derived from his years as a recluse, and the influence of the Metaphysical school of poets. His entry into public life in 1658 coincided with, and probably brought about, the termination of his private activity as a lyric poet. The thesis is divided into three chapters, which describe respectively the major events of the life, the influence on Marvell's poetry of contemporary poets, and the qualities and techniques of many of the major lyrics. The conclusions arrived at in the first section are only of the most generalised kind, since detailed information about Marvell is scanty, but it is possible to establish correlations between phases in the life and the writing of certain kinds of lyric. In the second section a good many verbal parallels between poems by Marvell and poems by Cowley and Lovelace are pointed out, but far the most important objective of this section is the description of the qualities of metaphysical poetry and the demonstration of the relevance of these to an understanding of Marvell's lyrics. In addition, it is maintained that it is only in the context of metaphysical poetry that Marvell's achievment can accurately be estimated. The final section yields no conclusions in the ordinary sense, but provides the detailed study of some lyrics and some of the longer poems which justifies the final judgment that, in some lyrics, Marvell demonstrates the qualities of technical skill, complexity of thought, and personal reinterpretation of the lyric tradition which are usually considered the hallmarks of a major poet, but that many poems in the canon fall far below the standard of the best lyrics. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

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The phrase "the just Figure" - a quotation from Upon Appleton House - is the central theme of this thesis as it aptly describes Marvell's repeated use of shape, harmony and proportion to suggest morality and virtue. The poet's concern with geometrical imagery is conveyed by the word "figure", which also is another term for a metaphor or conceit. The word "just" suggests not only moral appropriateness, but also mathematical exactness or fit. The thesis consists of five chapters, each dealing with an aspect of the imagery of shape and form which pervades so many of Marvell's lyrics. The first chapter, "Moral Geometry", deals with the way in which Marvell uses the imagery of lines, angles and curves. In some poems the lines are curved, as in Upon the Hill and Grove at Bill-borrow, where the graceful downward curved line of the hill conveys Fairfacian humility. Symmetry and circularity are discussed in the second chapter. The poet uses the perfect shape of the circle to depict objects which convey a moral significance. Similarly, several of the lyrics are themselves quasi-circular with their closing lines echoing their openings. Chapter Three deals with liquid spheres. Marvell explores the nature, shape and texture of tears in poems such as Eyes and Tears and Mourning; and in On a Drop of Dew uses the shape of the dew drop to suggest the perfection of the heavenly realm from which it has been parted. In several of the lyrics, Marvell places a frame around his poems to create an enclosed world in which his poetic creations exist. These enclosed, or framed, worlds are discussed in Chapter Four. The final chapter, "Beyond The Frame", describes how some of the lyrics suggest a move from the world within to the world beyond the frame of the poem.This can either be a movement from confinement to release, or from the seen world to worlds unseen. Shape, harmony and proportion are the qualities which Marvell uses to convey morality and humility and a vision of the world based on what is, in the various senses of the word, "just".

Thesis (MA (English Literature))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Seventeenth-century England witnessed a time of radical sociopolitical conflict and transition. This thesis aims to examine how two writers closely associated with this period and its controversies, John Milton and Andrew Marvell, represent events as they unfold. This thesis focuses specifically on Milton’s Paradise Lost and Marvell’s Cromwellian poems in order to show how these poets reinterpret established literary conventions and invoke traditional Puritan practices in order to explain and legitimise the precarious new dispensation of post-Civil War England. At the same time, their work produces ambiguities and tensions that threaten to undermine the very discourse that they attempt to endorse. Both poets’ work indicates an active involvement in the political embroilments of their time while retaining its aesthetic value. Therefore, these texts do not only function on an aesthetic level but also within the historical framework of political ideologies. The focus of this thesis is a discussion of the relationship between politics and poetry, with the emphasis on poetry of conflict and transition in civil society. In other words, it is not only considered how different poetic genres reflect social and political change in different ways but also how these genres in turn contribute to political rhetoric. During the English Revolution Milton and Marvell try to provide solutions for the political disturbance, even while remaining aware of the new conflicts produced in the attempt.

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