How vainly men themselves amaze / To win the palm, the oak, or bays?
-- Speaker (Lines 1 – 2)

Importance: This opening quotation establishes the poem's central conceit: the rejection of society and of the praises that people can win with their achievements. The speaker also alludes to his eventual botanical interests by using the symbol of "palm" "oak" and "bay," all types of trees, to explain this rejection. However, the fact that the poem does not begin by talking about the garden that Marvell is praising, but the social achievements he is rejecting, suggests that the principal theme of the poem may not be in the title. It might not be the garden that the poem is about, but instead the absence of society.

Mistaken long, I sought you then / In busy companies of men.
-- Speaker (Lines 11 – 12)

Importance: This is the closest we get to a "backstory" for the speaker. He reveals that he used to look for "quiet...