SOURCE: Turner, James. “Long Views: Prospect and historical perspective in two poems of place.” The Politics of Landscape: Rural Scenery and Society in English Poetry 1630-1660, pp. 49-84. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979.

In the following excerpt, Turner examines Coopers Hill, as part of a tradition of “adapting landscape to political issues,” comparing the poem to some of its predecessors.

It seems to me (beholding it at the best light) a Lantskip of these Kingdoms … 

(Fanshawe on Il Pastor Fido)

Denham's Coopers Hill appeared in 1642, and Marvell's Upon Appleton House was probably written by 1652. They are both true topographical poems,¹ elaborating on the description of an actual place, and bearing its name. They are very different in manner, but they both derive their structure from a transformation of ideal landscape. Both poems construct an image of country life, and draw upon “prospective” techniques to arrange multifarious material into...