Andrew Marvell, An Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland

Alexandra Finn-Atkins (Fordham University)
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An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland by the seventeenth-century English poet Andrew Marvell chronicles the victorious return in 1649 of Oliver Cromwell and his New Model Army from their bloody conquests in Ireland. The poem juxtaposes the speaker’s praise for Cromwell’s Puritan politics and his sympathy for Charles I’s execution. This mixed political allegiance has triggered decades of critical controversy—beginning with the first posthumous collection of the poet’s work. After Marvell’s death in 1678, a woman calling herself Mary Marvell, and claiming to be the poet’s widow, and a publisher Robert Boulter, collaborated on the 1681 volume entitled Miscellaneous P…

2028 words

Citation: Finn-Atkins, Alexandra. "An Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 October 2017 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6619, accessed 21 November 2024.]

6619 An Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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