Andrew Marvell: Poems

How has Andrew Marvell worshipped the beauty of nature in his poem the garden?

Andrew Marvell

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The speaker goes on to praise the solitude and quiet of his retreat into the garden, believing that he was mistaken to have once sought “Fair Quiet’ and “Innocence” among the “busy companies of men.” He also associates his private retreat with a holy experience, stating that the “sacred plants” of quiet and innocence can only grow amongst the organic plants in the garden. In other words, the material surrounding of the garden makes room in the speaker's heart and mind for the cultivation of spiritual values, which life in society has forced him to disregard.

The speaker continues to develop his extended conceit of the garden’s superior virtues, finding its “lovely green” more favorable than red and white which are the colors poets most often used in erotic poetry to describe the lips, teeth, face, and body of a beloved.