Another Porker in the Garden of Epicurus: Marvell's "Hortus" and "The Garden"

Another context in which Marvell's "Garden" can be read is that of the Garden of Epicurus, especially as it appears in the poetry of Horace. A comparison of the Horatian attitudes in Marvell's "Hortus" and "The Garden"—particularly in the key concepts of otium (leisure) and umbra (shade)—suggests that critics have put too much emphasis on the Christian Neoplatonic stanzas (5-8) that are left out of the Latin version. These stanzas modify, but do not completely negate, the purely Epicurean denial of ambition and love which is the theme of "Hortus." "The Garden" not only reflects Horatian attitudes but also uses the balanced structure of a Horatian ode, in which the different sections of the poem are in a kind of complementary contrast to each other. Horace does this especially in odes like "Nunc est bibendum" (C. I.xxxvii) or "Integer vitae" (C. I. xxii). This Horatian balance is also present in the tone of the poem. The paradoxes, puns, and Horatian exaggerations create a tone which is not deadly serious or philosophically abstract, but, like Horace's, seriously witty and playfully philosophical. It is for these reasons that one can identify Marvell with Horace as a "porcus de grege Epicuri" (Ep. I. iv).