Upon Appleton House by Andrew Marvell

[lucydavies1989]

I am looking in to how nature is depicted in Upon Appleton House. Does anyone have any ideas?

[vagantes]

The poem is about a country house and its estate. One predecessor is Jonson's poem To Penshurst. But, whereas Jonson's poem sees the natural world as one of sumptuous production, Marvell treats these objects (trees, animals, floods etc.) in a more contemplative manner and uses the views described for social and political commentary.

Upon Appleton House belongs to a genre known as prospective poetry with links to Sir John Denham's innovative work Coopers Hill which was influenced by developments in landscape painting and exploited the idea of nature as an illusion. A critic called Rosalie Colie discusses the relationship between the poem and paintings which use optical illusion and distortion in My Ecchoing Song: Andrew Marvell's Poetry of Criticism ( 1970, Princeton, NJ).

Another idea to pursue is to consider how Marvell uses landscape in ways which reflect the crisis of his times while constantly suggesting that behind the immediate turmoil is a state of Edenic innocence.

[astrum]

Here's some information on Marvell: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/andrew-marvell