Yeah, leaves the question of why he put it in. Not the obvious, that he was
doing it for public relations reasons, since nobody, virtually, must have
read it at the time (other than Fairfax). Except ... if you simply cut it
out, the poem loses something. Just quite what, I dunno.
We could weasel out by saying, "It's part of the persona of the narrator",
but that doesn't quite satisfy me. What would you do with it, Jamie?
With "The First Anniversary Of the Government under O.C", it's easier, since
the poem is overall so crappy (especially compared to the earlier "Horatian
Ode", which is my excuse for misremembering the title in the first place)
that the question is really why Marvell considered it worth writing in the
first place.
What bothers me more is the Usura Passage in the Cantos. Normally, when
Pound's more lunatic political side surfaces there, the language falls to
bits, and you can simply skip over the rubbish. But the Usura piece seems
to combine bad politics and powerful and effective language. No fair!!
Robin
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jamie McKendrick" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2010 12:34 PM
Subject: Re: "Cambridge Poetry and Political Ambition" by Robert Archambeau
> No, I think you're right about the Ode. The idea that the Irish, if I've
> understood it, "have, though overcome, confest / How good he is, how
> just..." is grotesque. Marvell obviously wasn't asking at Wexford or
> Drogheda. And the stuff later about the Scots is cruel and taunting.
> (Otherwise a great poem!)
> Jamie
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Robin Hamilton" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 11:25 PM
> Subject: Re: "Cambridge Poetry and Political Ambition" by Robert
> Archambeau
>
>
>>> Fair distinction - but I'd put 'An Horation Ode upon Cromwel's Return
>>> from Ireland' on the other side of the border from 'Masque of Anarchy' -
>>> surely the first keeps on undercutting any sureness on the reader's part
>>> as to what Marvell's position is, where the second is clear as day, or
>>> night.
>>> Jamie
>>
>> I would too -- and "The First Aniversary" (gagh, I can never remember the
>> title!) on the other side. Though maybe the one point where the Horatian
>> Ode wobbles (whether it's into agitprop or simply bad poetry) is the
>> anti-Irish, anti-Scot bit at the end. But that might just be me
>> objecting to what Mavell is saying at that point!
>>
>> Robin
>
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