The Poet's Time - 9780521129336

This book unites the disciplines of literature and history in an attempt to set the writings of Andrew Marvell in their seventeenth-century context of revolutionary upheaval and counterrevolution. Marvell is seen as a representative figure, illustrating the problems the intellectual inevitably faces when he enters the political arena

Dr Chernaik traces the evolution of Marvells writings from impartiality to political engagement under the pressure of events. He shows in the earlier part of the book how both `An Horatian Ode' and `Upon Appleton House', two of the greatest political poems in the English language, written during the unsettled period of the Commonwealth, are complex works of historical analysis, which present the problem of the choices facing men at a given historical moment. However, after the collapse of Puritan hopes at the Restoration. Marvell moves towards a literature of commitment which attempts to preserve the inner vision in a troubled sea of noises and hoarse disputes'. Throughout his writings, Dr Chernaik argues. Marvell is both a Puritan and a wit, a fastidious ironist and a moralist like his friend Milton. He shows how in the later satirical and occasional writings. Marvell deploys his full arsenal of wit in order to persuade the reader of a particular course of action

Most studies of Marvell concentrate on a few well-known lyrics to the exclusion of the greater part of his writings in verse and prose. This study, which will interest specialists and non-specialists alike, attempts to correct this imbalance by giving a more integrated and comprehensive account of Marvell, examining his political and religious principles and his satires, and paying equal attention to works written before and after the Restoration.