Analysis of First Anniversary

Andrew Marvell 1621 (Winestead) – 1678 (London)



Like the vain curlings of the watery maze,
Which in smooth streams a sinking weight does raise,
So Man, declining always, disappears
In the weak circles of increasing years;
And his short tumults of themselves compose,
While flowing Time above his head does close.

Cromwell alone with greater vigour runs,
(Sun-like) the stages of succeeding suns:
And still the day which he doth next restore,
Is the just wonder of the day before.
Cromwell alone doth with new lustre spring,
And shines the jewel of the yearly ring.

'Tis he the force of scattered time contracts,
And in one year the work of ages acts:
While heavy monarchs make a wide return,
Longer, and more malignant than Saturn:
And though they all Platonic years should reign,
In the same posture would be found again.
Their earthy projects under ground they lay,
More slow and brittle than the China clay:
Well may they strive to leave them to their son,
For one thing never was by one king done.
Yet some more active for a frontier town,
Taken by proxy, beg a false renown;
Another triumphs at the public cost,
And will have won, if he no more have lost;
They fight by others, but in person wrong,
And only are against their subjects strong;
Their other wars seem but a feigned contèst,
This common enemy is still oppressed;
If conquerors, on them they turn their might;
If conquered, on them they wreak their spite:
They neither build the temple in their days,
Nor matter for succeeding founders raise;
Nor sacred prophecies consult within,
Much less themself to pèfect them begin;
No other care they bear of things above,
But with astrologers divine of Jove
To know how long their planet yet reprieves
From the deservéd fate their guilty lives:
Thus (image-like) an useless time they tell,
And with vain sceptre strike the hourly bell,
Nor more contribute to the state of things,
Than wooden heads unto the viol's strings.

While indefatigable Cromwell hies,
And cuts his way still nearer to the skies,
Learning a music in the region clear,
To tune this lower to that higher sphere.

So when Amphion did the lute command,
Which the god gave him, with his gentle hand,
The rougher stones, unto his measures hewed,
Danced up in order from the quarries rude;
This took a lower, that an higher place,
As he the treble altered, or the bass:
No note he struck, but a new stone was laid,
And the great work ascended while he played.

The listening structures he with wonder eyed,
And still new stops to various time applied:
Now through the strings a martial rage he throws,
And joining straight the Theban tower arose;
Then as he strokes them with a touch more sweet,
The flocking marbles in a palace meet;
But for the most the graver notes did try,
Therefore the temples reared their columns high:
Thus, ere he ceased, his sacred lute creates
Th' harmonious city of the seven gates.

Such was that wondrous order and consent,
When Cromwell tuned the ruling Instrument,
While tedious statesmen many years did hack,
Framing a liberty that still went back,
Whose numerous gorge could swallow in an hour
That island, which the sea cannot devour:
Then our Amphion issued out and sings,
And once he struck, and twice, the powerful strings.

The Commonwealth then first together came,
And each one entered in the willing frame;
All other matter yields, and may be ruled;
But who the minds of stubborn men can build?
No quarry bears a stone so hardly wrought,
Nor with such labour from its centre brought;
None to be sunk in the foundation bends,
Each in the house the highest place contends,
And each the hand that lays him will direct,
And some fall back upon the architect;
Yet all composed by his attractive song,
Into the animated city throng.

The Commonwealth does through their centres all
Draw the circumference of the public wall;
The crossest spirits here do take their part,
Fastening the contignation which they thwart;
And they, whose nature leads them to divide,
Uphold this one, and that the other side;
But the most equal still sustain the height,
And they as pillars keep the work upright,
While the resistance of opposèd minds,
The fabric (as with arches) stronger binds,
Which on the basis of a senate free,
Knit by the roof's protecting weight, agree.

When for his foot he thus a place had found,
He hurls e'er since the world about him round,
And in his several aspects, like a star,


Scheme AABBCX DDEEFF GGHHXXIIJJKKLXMMNXOOAAPPQQAXRRSS AXTT UULXXXVV WWCCNNXXYY XXZZ1 1 SS 2 2 XX3 3 4 4 5 5 MM 6 6 XXWWOO7 7 8 8 9 9 X
Poetic Form
Metre 1011101001 1011010111 11010101 0011010101 011110101 1101011111 100111011 1101010101 0101111101 1011010101 1001111101 0101010101 110111011 0011011101 110110101 1001010110 0111010111 0011011101 1101010111 1101010101 1111111111 1111011111 1111010011 1011010101 0101010101 0111111111 1111010101 0101011101 1101110111 1101001101 1100111111 110111111 1101010011 1101010101 1101000101 1101111101 1101111101 1101000111 111111011 101111101 1101110111 0111010101 1101010111 110110011 101000101 0111110101 1001000101 1111011101 11110101 1011111101 0101101101 1101010101 1101011101 1101010101 1111101111 0011010111 01001011101 01111100101 1101010111 0101011001 1111110111 0101000101 1101010111 101011101 1111110101 1101001010101 1111010001 1101010100 11001010111 1001001111 110011100110 11010110010 110110101 01110101001 010110101 0111000101 1101010111 1101110111 1101011101 111111101 1111000101 1001010101 0101111101 011101010 1101110101 010100101 010111101 1001010101 011011111 10001111 0111011101 0111010101 1011010101 0111010101 100101111 0101110101 1101010101 1101010101 1111110111 11101010111 001101101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 4,350
Words 765
Sentences 14
Stanzas 10
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 32, 4, 8, 10, 8, 12, 12, 3
Lines Amount 101
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 345
Words per stanza (avg) 77
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 26, 2023

3:50 min read
77

Andrew Marvell

Andrew Marvell was an English metaphysical poet, satirist and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1659 and 1678. During the Commonwealth period he was a colleague and friend of John Milton. more…

All Andrew Marvell poems | Andrew Marvell Books

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