An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland by Andrew Marvell (Stylistic analysis)

Andrew Marvell's ‘An Horatian ode upon Cromwel's return from Ireland’ is the most private
of political poems. It may be a solitary meditation; it may be written, after Horace, for a
forward youth now unknown to us; but it scarcely seems addressed to the public audience of
Marvell's tribute to Cromwell in ‘The first anniversary’. We enter an imaginative landscape
beyond politics, outside the movement of history, where the figures of the ode – restless
Cromwell, the royal actor, the clapping soldiers, the frighted architects, the tamed Irish, the
luring falconer, the hunted Pict – appear stilled as upon some ancient vase. Yet the poem's
transcendence of events need not be taken for detachment from them, nor its privacy for
retreat. I want to suggest that the celebrated poise and urbanity of the ode have been created
from energy and urgency of feeling. Marvell has given timelessness to a desperate and
portentous moment in his country's history, the arrival of Cromwell in England in the summer
of 1650. Language has been immortalized too: the language of ephemeral tracts and
newspapers, which is close enough to the surface of the poem to suggest a younger Marvell
as politically engaged as the restoration M.P. and whig pamphleteer.
Marvell begins the poem by presenting Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the
Commonwealth, as a “forward youth” who must once again engage in military conflict and
achieve glory. The speaker imagines Cromwell abandoning the Muses of poetry and leaving
his “books in dust” in favor of taking up his armor and corslet. Cromwell is restless because
his “active star,” or destiny, urges him toward the valor of “adven’rous war.”
Marvell next compares Cromwell to “three-forked lightning” that breaks through the clouds
where it is first nursed in order to strike out and carve its own fiery path. Cromwell
eventually blasts through the laurels of “Caesar’s head,” which is an allusion to the head
of King Charles I. The speaker calls it “madness to resist or blame” Cromwell’s force,
because Cromwell clearly holds “Heaven’s flame” and England owes him a lot. Cromwell
left his “private gardens” where he lived a peaceful and calm life, and was able to overthrow
the monarchy and “cast the kingdoms old / Into another mold” using his “industrious valour”
in the military world.
Cromwell’s victories may seem to make “Justice against Fate complain,” and suggest that he
has usurped the “ancient rights” of kings who once ruled over England. However, the speaker
claims that these rights only hold or give way depending on the strength of the men who
defend them. Likewise, nature abhors a vacuum, so when a greater body or spirit enters a
particular space, the lesser spirit must “make room” for it. The speaker believes that the fields
where the civil wars took place show that Cromwell’s wounds were the deepest. “Hampton,”
the name of King Charles’s palace, reveals Cromwell’s “wiser art” because Cromwell
managed to trap the King there and trick him into fleeing to “Caresbrook.”

Then, the poem shifts attention from Cromwell to Charles I, whom the speaker describes as a
“royal actor” born to face the “tragic scaffold” of his execution while the armed masses look
on and clap “their bloody hands.” The speaker claims that King Charles does “nothing
common” or “mean” when facing his execution, and does not spitefully call upon God to
lament his fate. Instead, Charles I meets the edge of the axe with the sharper edge of his own
gaze, and “bow[s] his comely head” upon the executioner’s block as if it were a bed. The
speaker believes that Charles’s execution marks the “memorable hour” for the victorious
Parliament Army, as well as those who must “design” the new State. Certainly, Charles I's
“bleeding head” frightens some Parliamentarians and causes them to “run” from the cause,
but the speaker believes that this momentary violence leads to England’s “happy fate.”
The poem's focus then returns to Cromwell, as the speaker discuses the Lord Protector's
victories. In Ireland, the Irish forces are “ashamed” to have been “tamed” after battling
Cromwell’s army for only one year. Even the Irish “can affirm his praises” after being
subdued by Cromwell, whom the speaker believes to be good and just. Cromwell is well
prepared to serve the new English Republic because of his ability to obey the will of the
people. Cromwell wins the kingdom but gives it to the Commons, along with his fame. He
lays his “sword and spoils” at the “skirt,” or feet, of the public. In this regard, the speaker
compares Cromwell to an obedient falcon that kills and delivers her prey, but does not return
to the hunt unbidden.

The speaker imagines Cromwell and England’s united victories to come, comparing these
future conquests to those of Caesar and Hannibal. He suggests that Cromwell will soon turn
his attention to the nation of the “Pict” in Scotland, who will soon cower “underneath the
plaid.” The poem concludes with an image of Cromwell as the untiring son of War and
Fortune who must keep his sword ready and “erect,” both to frighten the “spirits of the shady
night” and to maintain the power he has won.

Marvell wrote this poem to commemorate Oliver Cromwell’s return to England after a
military expedition to Ireland. Cromwell defeated the Irish Catholic and English Royalist
Alliance in a series of battles, thereby eliminating a major threat to the newly formed English
Republican government. Marvell models his poem on the odes of the Roman poet, Horace,
who fought on the side of Roman Republicans but eventually accepted Augustus Caesar's
rule and the ensuing peace. The poem is ambivalent about the rule and execution of King
Charles I, even though Marvell clearly praises Oliver Cromwell’s leadership. Critics continue
to debate Marvell’s political leanings and question how sympathetic this poem is to Charles I
(Smith). The poem is written in stanzas of four lines. Each stanza features a rhymed couplet
in iambic tetrameter, followed by a rhymed couplet in iambic trimeter.

At the beginning of the poem, the speaker praises Cromwell for his “restless” character and
devotion to military valor. Rather than passing time idly in private or “languishing” in the
“shadows,” Crowell has taken an active lead in protecting the new English Republic.
Cromwell has brought his army to Ireland in order to battle the alliance of Royalist and
Catholic forces. The speaker goes on to suggest that God has approved Cromwell’s power:
“‘Tis madness to resist or blame / The force of angry heaven’s flame.” However, the speaker
also implies that Cromwell’s victories may upset the balance of Justice, since “ancient rights”
only “hold or break” according to the strength of the men defending them. Here, we see a
clear example of the poem’s ambivalence toward Cromwell: his political valor and military
prowess are worthy of Marvell's praise, as are his Republican leanings. In addition, though,
the speaker also acknowledges the possibility that Cromwell could present a threat to the
right of law, especially if he abuses his power.

Marvell maintains the poem's ambivalence when the speaker asks, “What field of all the civil
wars / Where his were not the deepest scars?” The line could mean that Cromwell’s battle
scars are deeper than those of any other and imply that he suffered valiantly for the civil wars.
This line could also mean that the wounds Cromwell inflicted upon the nation’s “field” are, in
fact, the “deepest scars.” In other words, has Cromwell bravely endured these wars for the
good of England, or has the Commonwealth suffered at his hands? The speaker implies that
the answer depends upon the direction that the new Republic takes moving forward.

At this point, Marvell shifts focus from praising Cromwell to describing the scene of Charles
I’s execution, using theatrical language. The King mounts his “tragic scaffold” while the
onlookers applaud with “bloody hands.” It is unusual that in a poem that praises of Cromwell,
the speaker’s description of King Charles I's death seems highly favorable to the monarch's
memory. First, the speaker claims that the King displays “nothing common… or mean” in his
behavior. Charles meets his fate with a sense of dignity and magisterial presence that Marvell
captures in the image of his “keener eye” gazing upon the “axe’s edge.” This description
implies that the King’s look is more fierce and daunting than the edge of the axe. Moreover,
Charles does not rail against fate or the Gods, which, in tragic drama, is a common reaction
amongst men who are facing their imminent deaths.

In the final section of the poem, the speaker returns to praising Cromwell for his military
victories in Ireland and suggests that Cromwell shall go on to reap victories anew, bringing
increased glory to England. The speaker uses the term “Pict” to refer to Scotland, which
many saw as the next significant threat to the newly founded English Republic because of its
Royalist leanings. Cromwell did in fact invade Scotland only a few months after his
victorious return from Ireland, so the imagery of Marvell’s poem corresponds to the military
rumors of the moment.

The poem imagines Cromwell marching “indefatigably on” with his sword raised up in battle.
Yet this final image of the ‘Horatian Ode’ is fairly ambivalent. On one hand, it asserts
Crowell’s power to “fright / the spirits of the shady night,” which many scholars connect to
the Stuarts' reign, due to King James I (Charles I's father)'s interest in witchcraft and
demonology. Cromwell’s sword can never be lowered, though, the poem suggests, since “The
same arts that did gain / A pow’r must it maintain.” To guard the new Republic against its
many enemies, Cromwell must be ever vigilant – a task that the poem implies is difficult at
best, and impossible at worst.