SOURCE: "The Cromwell Poems," in Marvell and the Civic Crown, Princeton University Press, 1978, pp. 59-94.

In the following excerpt, Patterson argues that in his attempts to describe Cromwell, Marvell also advanced his understanding of language and writing.

… In all of his poems about Cromwell, Marvell faced a rhetorical problem which was clearly occasioned by political facts. Cromwell's actions were not only unconstitutional, they were also extremely difficult to assimilate into traditional modes of expression. A training in classical rhetoric provided a writer with a range of attitudes ….

At first sight the First Anniversary suggests a simple development from choice in progress to choice complete, from a mixed rhetorical stance supported by the classics to Christian determinism supported by biblical typology. However, any attempt to develop a straightforward reading of the poem as an alternative to the Ode, a "committed" Puritan poem which knows where it stands, is quickly...