An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland

On the poem’s surface, Marvell’s ode praises the unlikely rise of Oliver Cromwell. Much of the poem describes Cromwell’s conquest as a force as inevitable and natural as the strike of “three-fork’d lightning” (Line 13). The speaker characterizes Cromwell as an incidental yet necessary hero through diction, symbolism, and hyperbole. However, there are contradictions and mixed metaphors that subvert the speaker’s unfaltering logic and praise for Cromwell. The speaker holds strong sympathies for the beheaded King Charles I. It is unclear whether the speaker’s sympathies for Charles outshine Cromwell’s “active star” (Line 12). The poem ostensibly mythologizes Cromwell but one can also see the speaker’s anxieties about political and religious instability.

The poet’s characterization of Cromwell as both an unlikely and a predestined hero starts with the first two lines. The speaker describes Cromwell as a “forward youth” (Line 1); they suggest the future leader’s progressive, precocious, and proud nature with the word “forward.” Cromwell comes from an older tradition. He “forsake[s] his Muses” (Line 2), or the Ancient Greek goddesses of artistic inspiration to become a man of action. The speaker connects Cromwell to Ancient Greece—and later to Ancient Rome when comparing him to “Caesar” (Line 101). This establishes Cromwell’s disposition from a time of republics and democracies. These political systems were virtually unpracticed in England prior to the 17th century, when Cromwell won the English Civil War and ruled “still in the republic’s hand” (Line 82) as Lord Protectorate. Cromwell’s Roman republican rule trumps even Charles’s comparatively recent “ancient rights” as king of England (Line 37).

The speaker presents Cromwell as an ideal candidate for political office. Cromwell is a vigilant military leader, able to “keep [his] sword erect” (Line 116) to maintain civil order and to frighten away “The spirits of the shady night” (Lines 118). Similarly, Cromwell is depicted as a martyr for the public good, willing to wage “advent’rous war” (Line 11), and to bear the “deepest scars” (Line 46) on the battlefield. Cromwell, in other words, is willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good of England, willing to “sway” (Line 83) to reasoned arguments and to “well obey” (Line 84) the public’s wishes. For example, Cromwell was willing to give up his “private gardens where / He liv’d reserved and austere” (Lines 29-30) to become a commander of the parliamentary army. The speaker reinforces Cromwell’s sacrifice by stating that “much to the man is due” (Line 28) who is willing to sacrifice personal peace for public prosperity.

Even Cromwell’s actions on his private estate foreshadow his “Active star” (Line 12) and desire to reshape England into republican Rome. The speaker describes Cromwell as “plant[ing] the bergamot” (Lines 31-32) in his private gardens, a citrus fruit native to southern Italy. Fate, however, forces Cromwell away from his life of “the inglorious arts of peace” (Line 10). This fate is referenced not only in the astrological predestination of the aforementioned “Active star,” but also in references to Cromwell as “fortune’s son” (Line 114). These threads run so deep, in fact, that the speaker summarizes Cromwell’s rise as “fate:” “justice against fate complain” (Line 37).

If “fate” refers to Cromwell, then “justice” refers to Charles and his rightful place as king. The comparison suggests that Cromwell’s rise is thereby unjust. The speaker’s decision to imply the king’s rule as “just” is one of many subtle ways that subvert their celebration of Cromwell. Each of these characterizations are hyperbolic or contradictory. Cromwell’s potential life in his private estate as a man of letters, for instance, is undercut by the fact that his books are already “in dust” (Line 5). Similarly, his ability as a military leader are brought into question by his rusty, “unused armour” (Line 6).

The speaker also attacks Cromwell’s integrity and ability to lead. Though sometimes impressed with Cromwell’s military might, the speaker worries about the leader’s ineptitude at the “inglorious arts of peace” (Line 10), and suggests that Cromwell is too “restless” (Line 9) to be anything but a military leader. These concerns reappear at the end of the poem, when the speaker states that “the same arts that did gain / A pow’r, must it maintain” (Lines 119-120). The speaker mixes metaphor and compares Cromwell to “Caesar he ere long to Gaul / To Italy an Hannibal” (Lines 101-102).

Much of the speaker’s attacks on Cromwell come from an underlying sympathy for King Charles, but the speaker also expresses religious concerns about Cromwell’s rule. The speaker presents an image of religious self-destruction when they describe Cromwell as “The force of angry Heaven’s flame” (Line 26) destroying “palaces and temples” (Line 22). Like the poem’s mixed metaphors, this image of self-destruction belies the speaker’s praise of Cromwell. Unlike the Stuart monarchy, which the speaker calls the “great work of time” (Line 34), they fear that Cromwell’s reign will bring instability, contradiction, injustice, and continual war.