Marvell’s the Garden: Ecocritical Lens

The poem The Garden by Andrew Marvell grapples with the relationship between humans and their physical environment. Having examined this poem in a previous literature class on transcendentalism, The Garden can be analyzed in a completely different light when examined through the lens of ecocriticism. In order to correctly evaluate a work using ecocritical framework, one must ask himself how human beings interact with their physical environment. It is evident through this work that human culture is intricately connected with the natural world and Marvell’s work is reflective of the cultural reconstruction that comes with radical environmentalism. Furthermore, Marvell constitutes that the natural world should be valued because humans and the natural world are interconnected in almost every facet.

First and foremost, one must analyze the tone when examining a work through the lens of ecocriticism. The beginning of the poem sets the tone for the reader’s feeling toward the human world. The mocking of humans in the third line and their “uncessant labours” insinuates that humans are working for material items that are considered to be insignificant. The last lines of the first stanza, “While all flow’rs and trees do close/ To weave the garlands of repose” (Marvell 8-9) are significant in that they state that there are a lot more meaningful aspects of life that come with the natural world instead of the man-made world. In the first stanza of the poem, speaker already associates people with inherently bad traits. Humans are unable to find happiness when they are living amongst other humans who do not have much to offer each other and the natural world. The way that the speaker describes the other humans as vain, alludes to the destructive aspects of human civilization and the man-made world.

In the second stanza, the last lines are of particular importance, “Society is all but rude,/ To this delicious solitude” (Marvell 15-16). The speaker finds that the solitude in the garden is more fulfilling than being amongst others in society. All of the ugliness in the world is directly connected to humans in society whereas all of the peace in the world can be found in the natural world in solitude, according to the speaker. The garden is a place of “sacred” plants that is independent from the rest of society where the speaker thinks there are “rude demands.” There is a huge disconnection in these two lines between how uncivilized society is and how peacefully this man is able to find the natural world.

In the fifth stanza, the speaker seems to be identifying with nature on an even deeper level. The speaker romanticizes aspects of the natural world in an unrealistic way. Marvell is building a connection between plants and human emotions. The speaker seems to understand the connection between internal pleasure that is found when a person can find peace within him or herself and pleasure that