Chapter Poems of The Collected Poems - Study Guide by Andrew Marvell

this garden is like the biblical ‘paradise of pleasure,’ which satisfies the senses whilst simultaneously calling for a contemplation of the source of such delights. The submission of the female colours to male ones immediately draws attention to the fact that this paradise is not a libertine one – no women are present within it only their names which are carved on trees. This merely shows up how inferior people are to nature:

"Fond lovers cruel as their flame,

Cut in trees their mistress’ name:

Little, alas, they know or heed

How far theses beauties hers exceed"

Marvell’s poem is almost misogynistic – adhering to the school of thought that Adam was better off in the Garden of Eden without Eve ("Such was that happy garden-state, / While man there walked without a mate") , just as the garden would be better off without the invasions of society – destroying its natural beauty.

"The Picture of Little T.C. in a Prospect of Flowers"

Though less explicitly about the beauty and harmony of nature this poem is in some ways linked to Marvell’s "Mower" poems. It describes a small girl (T.C.) who he feels is destined to grow up and change – becoming the same type of person as Juliana – he believes that she too will master love and human desire and in turn break hearts. From the very start he refers to her as a "nymph" which has sexual and playful connotations, he then remarks how "…She whose chaster laws / The wanton Love shall one day fear, / And under her command severe / See his bow broke and ensigns torn."

Nonetheless this is a more positive poem – T.C. has a generous and respectful relationship with nature:

"And there with her fair aspects tames

The wilder flowers, and gives them names"

She is an innocent and it is in this capacity that she cannot spoil nature – she does not have the selfish desire or jealousy necessary.

The poem does also have a slightly more serious undertone. During a time of war and uncertainty Marvell seems very aware that a nation’s hope lies with the youth as they carry with them a country’s ability to grow, mature and develop successfully. Therefore children like T.C. become fragile necessities. War does not discriminate between who it kills and Marvell is only too aware that T.C. could die in her youth:

"Gather the flowers, but spare the buds,

Lest Flora, angry at thy crime,

To kill her infants in their prime

Do quickly make the example yours;

And ere we see,

Nap in the blossom all our hopes in thee."

"To His Coy Mistress"