Artificial Nature and Natural Art: Spenser's "The Faerie Queene" and Marvell's "Upon Appleton House" Riki Verlinden

Many poets draw on the theme of nature to symbolize the message they are trying to convey. In many cases, nature is juxtaposed with artistic design to emphasize the conflict or the relationship between the natural and the human worlds. Millar Maclure clarifies the distinction between nature and art as follows: "nature as what is given, the universal order of creation, including human nature, and art as what is made, what man makes." He futher explains, "it is also proper to speak of nature as the art or 'signature' of God, and of art as the distinguishing quality or evidence of man's nature." This conflict between nature and art is often designed as an allegory by authors of poetry to communicate their opinion on society. Both Edmund Spenser (1522-1599) and Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) explore the idea of nature (and art) in their poetry, in order to present a moral as well as a historical lesson.

The works compared in this essay are Book 1 and part of Book 2 ("The Bower of Bliss" episode) of Spenser's The Faerie Queene, and Marvell's "Upon Appleton House: To My Lord Fairfax." The Faerie Queene, Spenser's longest and greatest work, was published in two parts, the...