The Internal Garden in Andrew Marvell's "The Garden"

The Garden by Andrew Marvell

How vainly men themselves amaze

To win the palm, the oak, or bays,

And their uncessant labours see

Crown’d from some single herb or tree,

Whose short and narrow verged shade

Does prudently their toils upbraid;

While all flow’rs and all trees do close

To weave the garlands of repose.

Fair Quiet, have I found thee here,

And Innocence, thy sister dear!

Mistaken long, I sought you then

In busy companies of men;

Your sacred plants, if here below,

Only among the plants will grow.

Society is all but rude,

To this delicious solitude.

No white nor red was ever seen

So am’rous as this lovely green.

Fond lovers, cruel as their flame,

Cut in these trees their mistess’ name;

Little, alas, they know or hee

How far these beauties hers exceed!

Fair trees! wheres’e’er your barks I wound,

No name shall but your own be found.

When we have run our passion’s heat,

Love hither makes his best retreat.

The gods, that mortal beauty chase,

Still in a tree did end their race:

Apollo hunted Daphne so,

Only that she might laurel grow;

And Pan did after Syrinx speed,

Not as a nymph, but for a reed.

What wond’rous life in this I lead!

Ripe apples drop about my head;

The luscious clusters of the vine

Upon my mouth do crush their wine;

The nectarine and curious peach

Into my hands themselves do reach;

Stumbling on melons as I pass,

Ensnar’d with flow’rs, I fall on grass.

Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less,

Withdraws into its happiness;

The mind, that ocean where each kind

Does straight its own resemblance find,

Yet it creates, transcending these,

Far other worlds, and other seas;

Annihilating all that’s made

To a green thought in a green shade.

Here at the fountain’s sliding foot,

Or at some fruit tree’s mossy root,

Casting the body’s vest aside,

My soul into the boughs does glide;

There like a bird it sits and sings,

Then whets, and combs its silver wings;

And, till prepar’d for longer flight,

Waves in its plumes the various light.

Such was that happy garden-state,

While man there walk’d without a mate;

After a place so pure and sweet,

What other help could yet be meet!

But ’twas beyond a mortal’s share

To wander solitary there:

Two paradises ’twere in one

To live in paradise alone.

How well the skillful gard’ner drew

Of flow’rs and herbs this dial new,

Where from above the milder sun

Does through a fragrant zodiac run;

And as it works, th’ industrious bee

Computes its time as well as we.

How could such sweet and wholesome hours

Be reckon’d but with herbs and flow’rs!

The Internal Garden in Andrew Marvell’s “The Garden”

How does a shift from the external world to the internal mind locate the source of personal happiness? In Andrew Marvell’s, “The Garden,” Marvell portrays the mind as an internal garden, one that thrives in solitude and revolves around self-awareness. The notion that bliss is evoked when the mind is completely aware of itself is supported by the interpretation of line 48, which states, “To a green thought in a green shade.”

The use of similar diction exists both in this line as well as in the other stanzas in Marvell’s poem. By relating the words in line 48 to the same words used in different contexts, the meaning of this line becomes clearer. For example, in the third stanza, the word “green” appears as a synecdoche for nature: “So amorous as this lovely green” (18). In this line, green is associated with nature, proving that Marvell correlated these two concepts together. Within the construct of nature, green represents rebirth or renewal; the concept of change, and in relation to line 48, a change in mindset. With this foundation, the symbolism of stanza 6 can be dissected. This stanza speaks of the happiness that the mind feels when it indulges in its own existence. The source of pleasure for the mind is its ability to create. In the act of creation, the mind succeeds in “annihilating all that’s made” (47), leaving behind only “a green thought in a green shade” (48). The mind seeks to transcend the exterior world and craft an interior world that succeeds in escaping from time. In doing so, the mind turns in on itself, discovering a new way of thinking of its own existence. This renewal of thoughts and reborn identity demonstrates what Marvell means by a “green thought”—just as flowers wilt and trees lose their leaves during the season of transition, the mind sheds outer influences and is reborn in its own identity.

The second part of this line— “in a green shade”— takes the idea of the mind’s awakening to its own autonomy and elevates it. As seen in the first stanza, the word “shade” is used in the context of a tree (5). This ties into the motive of shade in line 48 in the sense that being “in the shade” of something is to stand beneath its glory. This notion implies imitation: within the shade of previous artists, one absorbs and utilizes the past doctrines to create something new. The repetition of “green” in line 48 also reinforces this because the word has been imitated twice. Marvell alludes to Plato’s Forms through this use of imitative language and the choice of the word “shade”. Plato claims that the physical world is one of shadows, and a synonym for the verb tense of shadows is shade. These shadows are imitations of the true Forms, or ideals, of reality, that can transcend time and space (similar to the ability of the mind or self). Thus, Marvell is stating that the ideals of life (such as true happiness and bliss) are hidden within the shadows or shade of the exterior world. To reiterate line 48, “a green thought in a green shade” is all that remains after the mind destroys reality. Drawing on Plato’s Forms, this essentially proclaims that the ideals are hidden in the shadows—that the green thoughts are hidden in the green shade. The use of the word “green” in this sense is to detail the rebirth that is required in order to discover these ideals. The mind finds its resemblance in nature as seen in lines 43-44, but this is a shadow of the actual mind. The true nature of the self resides not in any external creation, but the innate and idiosyncratic garden that exists within the limitless reign of an individual’s own creation. This internal garden demonstrates the eternal state of the mind, located only through the resurrection of thought and the annihilation of imitation. “All that’s made” had to have been copied and repeated, and the removal of this shadow introduces the soul to itself. In order for the mind to be completely aware of itself, it must break away from imitation; the self is the one thing that is not a product of imitation. The values and opinions of a person can be influenced by exterior knowledge, but the person itself is unique and authentic.

A birth is never easy, and neither is the birth of a new mindset; from the ashes of this way of thinking, Plato’s Forms are reborn. Granted, they never died, as they are eternal ideals; however, the mind was asleep, and upon its revival, the mind was finally able to see what was right in front of it the whole time: the Forms. “A green thought in a green shade” (48) not only illustrates the reincarnation of the mind as a self-aware entity, but in doing so, it also awakes to the origin of its happiness: itself. Imitation is a prominent aspect of the shadow life, but through the beauty of creation, the mind remembers it is one with all the other minds that preceded it. The calmness of nature around an individual, while as prominent as the nature of that individual, fades away into a world of shadows once self-awareness is remembered.

Marvell, Andrew. "The Garden."