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Posts Tagged 'Poetry'

Karma Chameleon: A Defence of Nigel Smith’s Biography of Andrew Marvell

Published April 22, 2012 Literature , research 4 Comments
Tags: Andrew Marvell, Early Modern, Literature, Nigel Smith, Poetry, Psychology

Nigel Smith, Andrew Marvell - The Chameleon Like most Marvellians, I was both excited and nervous for the arrival of Nigel Smith’s new biography, The Chameleon, in late 2010. There was always going to be a risk that the foundations of my doctoral thesis would end up either covered or incontrovertibly disproved.

Off I went a few months later, in January 2011, to the most important stop of the book’s promotional tour, the Andrew Marvell Centre in Hull, to hear Nigel present on it.

Also in 2011, the Cambridge Companion to Andrew Marvell emerged. And with further co-authored work by its editors, Derek Hirst and Steven Zwicker, due imminently (referenced here), the opportunity for another composite review, or even a review article, has been a strong one. Due to various commitments, this has not yet come to pass, and it seems unlikely now that it will.

But with this site now appearing under the blog results in searches for Marvell (for which, many thanks), it has become a semi-credible platform. And this occurrence is indirectly responsible for what follows. A browse through the other blog-listed material revealed a rather provocative review of The Chameleon by Alan Altimont, an associate editor for the Andrew Marvell Society, which has prompted me to mount a defence.

Continue reading ‘Karma Chameleon: A Defence of Nigel Smith’s Biography of Andrew Marvell’

Resource

Published February 25, 2012 Literature , research Leave a Comment
Tags: Andrew Marvell, English Revolution, Literature, Oliver Cromwell, Poetry, research, Self-Confidence, Seventeenth Century

I’ve spent quite a lot of time marvelling (if we can forgive the pun) at the crossovers between my own personality and that of my revered poet. In the last few months, however, sad to say, I think I’ve sunk far beneath him now.

By the time Andrew Marvell turned 28 (as I recently did) in March 1649, Charles I had been executed. The regicide inspired one of the best political poems ever written, and ended up shaping a history that would define Marvell’s fascinating future career.

Private, secretive, awkward man and all, Marvell had numerous great personal qualities, none of which I could never hope to emulate. Last time around, into the spotlight went ‘confidence’, one of Marvell’s deceptive strengths. This time around, it has to be ‘resourcefulness’.

Continue reading ‘Resource’

Confidential

Published January 21, 2012 Literature , research , Writing 3 Comments
Tags: Alphaville, Andrew Marvell, Facebook, Literature, Poetry, Privacy, Secrecy, Self-Confidence, Sir Thomas Fairfax, Solitude

How much can you put yourself into the mind of another individual? It’s not a trick question: though I ask it a lot, I seem to do it a lot too.

My work on Marvell and Private Lives took up most of 2011, and it’s been a wonderful introspective process because the way I’ve symbiotically linked our biographies together has given me license to think as deeply and darkly as I please.

But now, just as I come to wrap this up, there’s something quite subtle which doesn’t add up.

Marvell almost always strikes the reader as the shy, demure sort. Occasionally women are abruptly visible, but otherwise they are teasingly distant, obscured, or absent. He weaves threads of complicated desire behind fastastical themes and layers of honeycombed language.

But perhaps that’s just his writing. After all, his publishing history is thin, and there’s little sign that Marvell placed a great deal of value on the majority of his own poems. Perhaps he’s even embarrassed by them. Why would that be?

Continue reading ‘Confidential’

Agency: Too Much Left Unsaid

Published December 17, 2011 Leicester , Literature , research 1 Comment
Tags: Andrew Marvell, Early Modern, Literature, Poetry, Print Culture, Privacy, Secrecy

What is said, matters. How it is said, matters. To whom it is said, matters. When it is said, matters.

The little nuances of our communication are more intricate and powerful than we often care to believe. How much value do we place on the words ‘Love’ and ‘Hate’? When does ‘never’ mean never? Why does one person’s way of speaking catch our imagination in a different way to another?

After the Fact

I’ve had the privilege of hearing the inspiring Tom Lockwood twice before: at the British Milton Seminar in 2008, and at his Chatterton Lecture on John Donne in 2009 (I’m heard 67 minutes in). His recent presentation at Leicester’s Early Modern Seminar on ‘agency’ presented a particular conundrum which is encountered – as often happens – in study and life combined.

What agency do words have after the fact? If something is said too late, does it matter that it was said at all? What if something is not said, or revealed too late?

Continue reading ‘Agency: Too Much Left Unsaid’

The Invisible Self

Published December 2, 2011 Edinburgh , Literature 3 Comments
Tags: Edinburgh, Friendship, Poetry, Privacy, Psychology, Secrecy, Self-Confidence, Self-Discipline

As a child, I remember keeping two football posters for any length of time. One was Chris Waddle at Sheffield Wednesday, the other was Gary Speed at Leeds.

Sad times. I lament saying that when encountering the headline ‘Gary Speed found dead’, I knew what the cause would be.

Removing the football side of this story, there was a universally liked and respected individual (a real challenge in football), with talent, good looks, a wonderful family. Everyone spoke highly of him, admired his energy, and said how happy he always seemed.

A life, alas, defined by its too-perfect happiness. It’s not a new phenomenon to believe that the happiest people are often the most unstable, and there’s sociological suggestions that the happiest states have the highest suicide rates.

Perfect happiness is a symptom. It’s the perfect mask to the secret invisible self. Continue reading ‘The Invisible Self’

All-Important Questions

Published November 20, 2011 Literature , research 1 Comment
Tags: Andrew Marvell, Literature, Poetry, Privacy, Psychology, Self-Confidence, Seventeenth Century

Every so often, we hit those defining moments where we ask ourselves the all-important questions. What has made us who we are? Why do we do what we do? Why do we live the way we live? What do we value most in life?

And it’s hard, because to approach such questions risks revealing many difficult answers, or things that we never want to contemplate. I’ve been drawn to revisit a favourite post of mine again, which describes how things that we pretend are complicated are often remarkably simple. And so, with that in mind, I ask myself why I do what I do, and if it reflects the person I am and want to be.

Continue reading ‘All-Important Questions’

New Horizons

Published November 12, 2011 Geneva , Leicester , Literature 1 Comment
Tags: Aegis Quest, Andrew Marvell, Blogging, Geneva, Poetry, Psychology, Self-Discipline

Inspired by, and dedicated to, those who didn’t write me off. (And welcome to any students who are looking for information on Marvell and arriving here. Please do contact me if you want any help).

This could be a maelstrom: of sentiments; of changes; of minds and mysteries. Much has changed in recent weeks, with positive challenges and valued rewards. It has been difficult to document it all, and the positivity comes with understandable nervousness and a touch of trepidation.

“The only way is onwards…”

Ideally, we want our lives to lead upwards trajectories. When somebody hits particular heights for themselves, they struggle to contemplate living within or below that potential. That’s the intricate psychology of accomplishment.

My life took such a monumental leap four years ago that when the subsequent falls struck with intent, no amount of trying, support, or soul-searching could arrest the slide, nor console its gravity. And this beautiful little portal came to life, with its artistry, its cadence, and its candour, as sadness drove and inspired my best writing.

I’ve told stories through feelings, and feelings through stories. I’ve read poetry through loneliness, and loneliness through poetry. I’ve discovered Marvell through myself, and myself through Marvell.

Continue reading ‘New Horizons’

Marvell, Glass, and ‘Upon Appleton House’

Published August 26, 2011 Literature , research 1 Comment
Tags: Andrew Marvell, Art, Dissertation, Early Modern, Ekphrasis, English Revolution, Interregnum, Literature, Mirrors, Poetry, Privacy, Psychology, Seventeenth Century

It is difficult to escape reflection. Mirrors are common enough (and, one might argue, hurtful enough), but windows are often reflectors as well as transparent portals. Personal experience also determines that reflection is there to antagonise the mind as well as to merely display the body. That is the paradigm of glass, a most ambivalent servant.

Ekphrasis becomes a common feature of Marvell’s Interregnum writing, but before it served his Cromwellian verse, these perspective features – of viewing and reflection, of the viewer and beyond – combine in a remarkable way in Marvell’s Upon Appleton House. Marvell’s portrayal of the private Lord Fairfax relies heavily on the construction and reflection of the self through private property and its (often vitrified) representations. Continue reading ‘Marvell, Glass, and ‘Upon Appleton House’’

Behind Closed Doors

Published August 19, 2011 Culture , Leicester , Literature Leave a Comment
Tags: Elizabeth Bishop, KUSP, Poetry, Privacy, Psychology, Radio, Robert Browning, Santa Cruz, Solitude

When I consider the poetry that inspires me the most, it all seems to have privacy at its root. Perhaps, given an earlier definition of poetry as ‘95% loneliness’, this is not surprising. Yet, not only does poetry have a long tradition of being a public form, but privacy as a theme remains a dark and complex subject that manifests itself in fascinating ways.

Our recent instalment on KUSP Radio, Santa Cruz, a 1-on-1 discussion with Gwynne Harries, was generously dedicated to my favourite poems. The (perhaps surprising) choices to best fit into the parameters of the show were ‘Sestina [September Rain]’ by Elizabeth Bishop, and ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ by Robert Browning, two poems that I’ve known and loved for many years, and which both deal with loss and loneliness from vastly different perspectives. As an addendum to what was discussed on the show, to compare these together offers something striking and special.

Continue reading ‘Behind Closed Doors’

‘To His Coy Mistress’? To Her Coy Master

Published July 18, 2011 Literature , research 1 Comment
Tags: Alcohol, Andrew Marvell, Autobiography, English Civil War, John Donne, Literature, Nigel Smith, Oscar Wilde, Poetry, Privacy, Psychology, Secrecy, Self-Confidence

This last week, so spoilt by social activity, the guards slipped and I revealed far too much. Now I must deal with the inner consequences of opening my mouth and letting fingers run too liberally across the keyboard. There are two ways this can go: either rein it back in and keep up pretences, or try to absolve it from the system. Wherever this takes me, then…

Parallel Lines

About 18 months ago, I joked that one of the most irrevocable traces of Andrew Marvell’s life was still rather unfamiliar to me. Now, I daresay, that has changed. In fact, ‘exalting the muse’ might be a useful description. The parallels only ever seem to run deeper…

"With great admiration, and in friendship, and thinking of the next Marvellians"

What most reviews of Nigel Smith’s new Andrew Marvell biography have not addressed is his controversial method of using the poems as evidence in chronological areas of best-fit. It’s brave and highly worthwhile, and a point worth raising because personal engagement with the poet and his troubled private reflections necessarily tempt us into handling evidence differently.

But how differently? Continue reading ‘‘To His Coy Mistress’? To Her Coy Master’

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Writing Privacy

Posts Tagged 'Poetry'

Karma Chameleon: A Defence of Nigel Smith’s Biography of Andrew Marvell

Resource

Confidential