An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1681

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

As the poem’s title suggests, Marvell wrote “An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland” in the form of a Horatian ode. The Horatian ode, as it has survived, dates at least as far back as 20 B.C.E and the Roman poet Horace, for whom the form is named. The Horatian ode finds its roots in the earlier Greek Aeolic ode. Both forms, in their original literary contexts, express tones of formality and tranquility. Marvell’s use of the form further connects Cromwell to the Roman figures, history, and ideas that Horace originally wrote about.

Formally, Horatian odes have few defining features. In English, the only formal criteria are that the poem has more than one stanza and that each stanza is structured according to the same meter, number of lines, and rhyme scheme. This means that Horatian odes are odes created from uniformly structured stanzas. Though Marvell’s ode was not divided into stanzas in its original publication, the poem’s rhyme scheme and structure suggests that it was intended to be divided into stanzas of four lines. In this way, Marvell’s poem is best understood as comprising of 30 quatrains, or stanzas of four lines. Each quatrain is made up of two rhyming couplets, one in iambic tetrameter and one in iambic trimester.

Most of the poem’s rhyming couplets, such as “head” (Line 63) and “bed” (Line 64), are perfect rhymes where the two words have identical vowel sounds. There are a few slant or imperfect rhymes such as “break” (Line 39) and “weak” (Line 40). The speaker often uses end-line rhymes to emphasize their larger points. For example, the rhymes “cease” (Line 9) and “peace” (Line 10), and “side” (Line 15) and “divide” (Line 16) contain the poem’s larger political concerns.

Direct Characterization

The poem uses characterization, a device that aims to construct or reveal something about a character in a work. In particular, Marvell uses direct characterization, the technique of relating character information from the speaker to the reader. Direct characterization stands in contrast to indirect characterization, which suggests a character’s traits through the character’s actions and speech. Though the speaker uses indirect characterization on occasion—such as when Cromwell blasts through “Caesar’s head” (Line 23), the majority of the speaker’s characterizing is direct.

The speaker describes Cromwell as “restless” (Line 9) and says “How good he is, how just, / and fit for highest trust” (Lines 79-80). Marvell’s speaker tries to present an objective account of Cromwell. He fails, pointing to the fundamentally subjective experience of political allegiances and instability.

Understatement

Marvell’s depiction and characterization of Cromwell relies on hyperbolic—or exaggerated—accounts of the military leader’s actions, conquests, and character. He also uses hyperbole’s opposite, understatement, to indirectly characterize Charles as a just, modest king. Marvell’s use of understatement is mostly limited to the section depicting Charles’s execution, where it turns the scene into one of the poem’s ironic cruxes.

The connection between Charles and “justice” (Line 37) suggests the unjust nature of Charles’s overthrow. This idea culminates with Marvell’s depiction of the king as a “royal actor” (Line 53), or someone just playing their assigned part. The poet also uses understatement in mentioning the soldier’s “bloody hands” (Line 56) to suggest their role in the king’s death. Understatement dominates the poem’s lines describing Charles, who “nothing common did or mean / Upon that memorable scene” (Lines 57-58). Though these lines communicate very little about Charles, they reveal the speaker’s sympathies with the king.