The Definition of Love – Andrew Marvell

The Definition of Love – Andrew Marvell                                                 

'The Definition of Love' is a metaphysical poem of Andrew Marvell. It describes the character of the love of the poet for his beloved. This poem falls into the category of the ‘definition’ poems with the emphasis not on defining love in general but on distinguishing the speaker’s love in particular. The poet tells that love is perfect and therefore unattainable. This love is divine, but Fate is an enemy of perfect love. It, therefore, never permits the two lovers to be united together. Perfect love can only mean spiritual union, but never a physical union.

Marvell’s poem expresses the simple idea through learned imagery. It requires to be a scholar to understand the meaning and implications of the various ideas in the poem. As a critic observes,

“All is imagery and personification, and the imagery is for the most part audaciously far-fetched. Conceit follows conceit. Every subject of the academic trivium and quadrivium is exploited in turn. The reader must either rise to the intellectual challenge or be content to enjoy the poem in terms of sensation and sound.”

The poet calls his love rare and its aim is strange and high because it has been borne by the union of Despair and Impossibility. This poem has a number of metaphysical conceits. For example, the poet’s love is said to be ‘begotten by Despair upon Impossibility’. The simple idea that the poet’s love is unattainable has been expressed with the help of such personifications as Despair and Impossibility and love is said to be borne by their union.

In the second stanza, Marvell writes,

"Magnanimous Despair alone 

Could show me so divine a thing 

Where feeble Hope could ne’er have flown, 

But vainly flapp’d its tinsel wing."

Despair is paradoxically described here as 'magnanimous'. His generous despair shows him path to the divine where hope is powerless and weak and flutters his showy wings in vain. Hope would be a sign of superficiality. The excellence of the loved person has been matched by the despair of the lover.

There is a complete statement of Platonic love. The soul in the next stanza is described as both ‘extended’, and ‘fixed’. The poet talks about the adversary nature of Fate compared with iron wedges which cut a piece of wood into two and divide them. The poet beautifully writes,

"But Fate does iron wedges drive, 

And always crowds itself betwixt."

Fate is jealous with the union of two lovers and never lets them unite but perfect love ruins the power of Fate and remove the tyrannic power of Fate. Therefore the strong decrees of Fate have placed the two lovers as far as the two poles from each other. Just as two poles cannot be brought together, so the poet and his lover cannot be united even though they are the pivot of the whole world. The union can take place only when the spinning planets collapse and some convulsion occurs and splits the earth with violence. For the sake of their union the earth must be 'planisphere'.

Andrew Marvell writes,

 “As Lines to Loves oblique may well

 Themselves in every Angle greet;

 But ours so truly Parallel

 Though infinite can never meet.”

Just as oblique lines can meet together, so only imperfect lovers can meet together but their love is short-lived. It is not eternal. But the poet says that their love is like parallel lines can never meet if they are stretched to eternity. So the spiritual love never comes to its end.

The poet considers Fate to be the real villain, as he tells in this

“But Fate so enviously debars,

Is the Conjunction of the Mind

An Opposition of the Stars.”

In this final stanza, Marvell delivers two definitions of the speaker’s love: it is both “the conjunction of the mind” and the “opposition of the stars.” On one hand, the image of conjunction suggests harmony, while the image of opposition implies that their love can never be fully realized. This idea implicitly refers to the power of Fate in the physical universe.

Conclusion:-

Thus, from the above discussion we can say that 'The Definition of Love' obviously shows Marvell as a' true metaphysical poet. There is a note of pessimism and frustration in the poem. With the use of astronomical and geometrical conceits, Marvell successfully delivers the nature of eternal love and role of Fate. The attitude and mood of Marvell in this poem “The Definition of Love”, is full of gloom and frustrations as the lover is painfully aware of the impossibility of his union with of the beloved.