The Garden
Lines 1-4
How vainly men themselves amaze
To win the palm, the oak, or bays;
And their uncessant labors see
Crowned from some single herb or tree,
• The speaker starts off in a kind of scoffing, mocking tone: look at all those silly men working their behinds off out there trying to win some trees. How ridiculous are they?
But these aren't just any trees. The palm tree, the oak, and the bay, or laurel tree all have special significance in classical traditions. ) : a kind of European tree that has leaves which are used in cooking/ has a sweet smell and is used in cooking)
• A crown made out of the branches of each tree is given out to people who deserve honor in a specific field: the palm tree for military honors, the oak tree for political honors, and the laurel tree for poetic honors.
• These awards are a big deal. They mean someone important (the king, emperor, governor, despot, whomever) has noticed your work and called you out for being awesome, and that kind of recognition also opens up the door for making more money or getting yourself a better job. Translation: there are lots of reasons to want those tree crowns and lots of people willing to work very, very hard to get them.
• Our speaker doesn't seem to be one of those people, though. He doesn't praise the work ethic of these men; he mocks them for working so hard for something so insignificant. We don't know exactly what our speaker has got against all these men who are striving for glory, but the use of words like "vainly" (in vain), "uncessant" (never-ending), and "labors" (hard work) indicates a negative impression.
• Take a look at line 4. The phrase "crowned from some single herb or tree" isn't meant to sound impressive. Crowns are generally very elaborate, and are obviously associated with royalty and power, but the crowns here are made out of "some single herb or tree." The speaker can't even be bothered to figure out what kind of herb or tree it is! It's just "some herb"—and a "single" herb at that. It seems like our speaker thinks that sounds pretty lame.
Lines 5-8
Whose short and narrow vergèd shade
Does prudently their toils upbraid;
While all flow'rs and all trees do close
To weave the garlands of repose.
• The speaker continues his scoffing in lines 5 and 6, but the wording is a bit tricky so we'll help spell it out. Line 5 opens and we're still talking about tree crowns. In case you were wondering, our speaker's opinion of them hasn't improved: these crowns are so worthless, they can't even offer shade! Instead of being an honor, the crowns are, in essence, a badge of disapproval.
• The "short and narrow verged shade" of the wreaths upbraids, or censures, the toils and labors of the men striving to earn them.
• If you're confused already, don't worry—lines 7 and 8 get us up to speed. The wreaths from lines 1-4, it seems, are being compared to "all flow'rs and all trees." The criticism of their "short and narrow vergèd shade" makes sense when you think about the shade you'd get from wearing a crown or wreath compared to the shade of a whole canopy of trees, vines, and flowers.
• It seems that, while all those men are busy with their "uncessant labors," the speaker(enjoys) is kickin' it out in nature. The flowers and trees out in the natural world are weaving themselves together to create a beautiful, stress-free, super-shady environment for the speaker to relax in.
• This stanza, as a whole, is making a point about workaholics. The speaker is wondering why men spend so much time working in their stuffy offices to earn one measly crown of oak branches that can't even keep them out of the sun when all those men could and should be spending time with the hundreds of different kinds of trees that exist in the garden.
• The answer to the speaker's question, of course, is that the crowns are not just tree branches woven together, they symbolizesomething—glory, honor, talent, and recognition. But the speaker already knows that, and he's twisting the tradition in order to prove a point: the natural world has better things to offer than the man-made world. Our speaker doesn't really think that men who work their bums off to write the best poem ever want the crown of laurel because they want to use its branches for shade. He's taking a tradition that uses something from nature to celebrate a public accomplishment and saying things should be the other way around: we, the public, should be celebrating nature instead.
• Here at the beginning of a poem is also the perfect time to take notice of the rhyme, form, and meter. As you might have noticed, this poem is broken up into nine stanzas, each of which is an octave (a fancy name for a stanza with 8 lines). It's also good to note that the poem is written in rhymed couplets of iambic tetrameter. Questions? We've got lots more to say about the role of rhyme schemes and stanza forms in "The Garden," so if this has whetted your appetite, zip over to the "Form and Meter" section to dig a little deeper.
Lines 9-12
Fair Quiet, have I found thee here,
And Innocence, thy sister dear!
Mistaken long, I sought you then
In busy companies of men.
• In stanza 2 we learn that our speaker has found "Fair Quiet" and "Innocence" "here." Where exactly "here" is we don't know yet, but we know where it is not. Lines 11 and 12 tell us that the speaker, once upon a time, looked for "Fair Quiet" and "Innocence" in society, but came back empty-handed.
• Lines 9 and 10 use a literary device known as personification, or the act of referring to a non-living object (idea, place, thing, quality) as if it had personal attributes. Marvell refers to "Fair Quiet" as having a sister, Innocence, and therefore personifies the two ideas.
• You might be tempted to label the speaker's address to "Fair Quiet" in line 9 as an apostrophe, but is it really? It looks an awful lot like one, but in order for it to be a true apostrophe, it has to be an address to someone or something who isn't there. "Fair Quiet" is referred to as being "here." Of course, whether or not you consider it an apostrophe depends on where you think "here" is. Let's keep reading to see if we get any more clues.
Lines 13-16
Your sacred plants, if here below,
Only among the plants will grow.
Society is all but rude,
To this delicious solitude.
• The "your" at the beginning of line 13 refers all the way back up to "Fair Quiet" in line 9. So now the speaker, it seems, is talking about Fair Quiet owning plants—plants which, we learn in line 14, only grow among other plants.
• At first glance line 14 seems like a weird and totally obvious statement to make. Why should Fair Quiet's plants not be found with plants belonging to anyone else?
• In order to really understand lines 13 and 14, we have to dip into a little seventeenth century philosophy. These lines are actually referring to the idea that all the plants on earth are inferior versions of the plants that grow "above" or in heaven. The sunflowers you see out your window, for example, are all well and good, but they aren't anywhere close to being as beautiful as the sunflowers that grow in the afterlife.
• Marvell is talking up nature. He's saying that, if the sacred versions of plants exist anywhere on earth, they'd be found hanging out with the other plants. Nature, even in its inferior, earthly form, is a more suitable place for sacred plants than anything human society could come up with.
• Lines 15 and 16 sum things up: society can't compare to being alone in the great outdoors.
• The mention of "solitude" in line 16 catches our attention. The speaker isn't just trying to escape the hustle and bustle of city life; he's saying "I want some 'me time' out here in the country and don't anyone even think of trying to tag along." It seems that the only way to stay truly removed from society is to have no company at all.
Lines 17-18
No white nor red was ever seen
So am'rous as this lovely green;
• In these lines the speaker is comparing colors, and his conclusion is a surprising one: apparently green, not red or white, is the most romantic color.
• But what does it mean for a color to be "am'rous" (amorous)? The dictionary definition of amorous is "showing, feeling, or related to sexual desire," but green isn't usually a color we associate with love. In fact, red and white are much more traditional. Hmm.
• Now whenever colors appear in poetry, you can usually bet that some fairly significant symbolism is going to come along with them. Traditionally speaking, white represents innocence, red symbolizes lust and romance, and green is the color of fertility.
• So what do you think? Does the association of green with fertility make it an "am'rous" color? Or is Marvell pulling another witty trick and getting at something else entirely? Let's read on…
Lines 19-24
Fond lovers, cruel as their flame,
Cut in these trees their mistress' name.
Little, alas, they know, or heed,
How far these beauties hers exceed!
Fair trees! wheres'e'er your barks I wound
No name shall but your own be found.
• In case you missed his point about trees being better than people back in stanza 2, Marvell illustrates it here with a nice bit of imagery.
• Ever heard your parents refer to "old flames" from back in their high school days? This goes back to a really common simile that compares the heat of a romantic relationship to the heat of a burning flame. Marvell, though, turns this comparison around; the heat of the flame becomes a cruel thing, and instead of comparing romantic heat favorably to the heat of fire, Marvell draws on fire's capacity to destroy and burn things up.
• So when Marvell writes that lovers are "cruel as their flame," he's saying the lovers are destroying things in the same way that fire does. As we'll see in the next line, he's referring immediately to trees but many people also interpret this line as a critique of romantic relationships in general. They read it a