The Definition of Love by Andrew Marvell Revision Notes for Edexcel A-Level English Literature

The Definition of Love by Andrew Marvell

Context

The Definition of Love by Andrew Marvell was written in the mid-17th century, a period marked by political turbulence and intellectual exploration.
The poem reflects Marvell's engagement with the metaphysical tradition, characterised by complex conceits and philosophical musings on love, fate, and existence.
Marvell's work often intertwines wit with deep emotional and intellectual insights, placing him among the prominent metaphysical poets like John Donne and George Herbert.

Structure and Form

Form, Metre, and Rhyme

The poem is composed of eight quatrains, each following an ABAB rhyme scheme.
It is written in iambic tetrameter, which consists of four iambic feet per line (an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable).
This regular form and metre provide a stable framework for the poem's complex ideas and emotional intensity.

Speaker and Setting

The speaker is a lover reflecting on the nature of their love, which is defined by impossibility and despair.
There is no specific physical setting, but the poem creates a metaphysical landscape where love and fate are personified and examined.

Poetic Devices

Conceit**:** The poem is built around the extended metaphor of love as an unattainable ideal, likened to parallel lines that can never meet.
Personification**:** Despair, Impossibility, Hope, and Fate are personified to explore the emotional and philosophical dimensions of love.
Alliteration**:** The poem uses alliteration to emphasise key points and enhance its musical quality, such as in "feeble Hope" and "flapp'd its tinsel wing".
Pun: The title and concept of "Definition" play on the dual meanings of defining something and setting its limits or boundaries.

Key Themes

The Impossibility of Perfect Love

"My love is of a birth as rare / As 'tis for object strange and high;" (Lines 1-2)

The poem suggests that true, perfect love is inherently unattainable, defined by its impossibility and the obstacles imposed by fate.

The Power and Beauty of Hopeless Love

"Magnanimous Despair alone / Could show me so divine a thing" (Lines 5-6)

The speaker finds a kind of sublime beauty in the hopelessness of their love, suggesting that its very impossibility makes it pure and divine.

The Role of Fate

"For Fate with jealous eye does see / Two perfect loves, nor lets them close;" (Lines 13-14)

Fate is depicted as an envious force that prevents the union of true lovers, maintaining the poem's central theme of love's unattainable nature.

Similar Poems

"To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell: Combines wit with philosophical reflections on time and love, similar to "The Definition of Love."
**"**The Good Morrow" by John Donne: Examines the nature of perfect love through elaborate metaphysical conceits.

Line by Line Analysis

Lines 1-4

My love is of a birth as rare

As 'tis for object strange and high;

It was begotten by Despair

Upon Impossibility.

"My love is of a birth as rare"

The speaker introduces their love as something exceptional and uncommon, immediately setting it apart from ordinary experiences.

"As 'tis for object strange and high;"

The love is compared to an elevated and unusual object, suggesting its unattainable nature.

_"_It was begotten by Despair / Upon Impossibility."

The origins of the love are described metaphorically, with Despair as its father and Impossibility as its mother, highlighting the hopelessness that defines it.

Lines 5-8

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.

"Magnanimous Despair alone / Could show me so divine a thing"

Despair is personified as noble and generous, revealing the profound nature of the love to the speaker.

"Where feeble Hope could ne'er have flown, / But vainly flapp'd its tinsel wing."

Hope is depicted as weak and ineffective, unable to reach the heights of this divine love, symbolised by its futile, glittering wings.

Lines 9-12

And yet I quickly might arrive

Where my extended soul is fixt,

But Fate does iron wedges drive,

And always crowds itself betwixt.

"And yet I quickly might arrive / Where my extended soul is fixt,"

The speaker suggests that they could easily reach the place where their soul is anchored if not for external obstacles.

"But Fate does iron wedges drive, / And always crowds itself betwixt."

Fate is personified as actively preventing the union of the lovers, driving wedges between them and constantly intervening.

Lines 13-16

For Fate with jealous eye does see

Two perfect loves, nor lets them close;

Their union would her ruin be,

And her tyrannic pow'r depose.

"For Fate with jealous eye does see / Two perfect loves, nor lets them close;"

Fate is depicted as envious and tyrannical, refusing to allow the union of true lovers because it would threaten its power.

"Their union would her ruin be, / And her tyrannic pow'r depose."

The speaker claims that the coming together of perfect lovers would overthrow Fate's oppressive rule, highlighting the transformative power of true love.

Lines 17-20

And therefore her decrees of steel

Us as the distant poles have plac'd,

(Though love's whole world on us doth wheel)

Not by themselves to be embrac'd;

"And therefore her decrees of steel / Us as the distant poles have plac'd,"

Fate's rigid decrees have placed the lovers as far apart as the North and South Poles, making their union impossible.

"(Though love's whole world on us doth wheel) / Not by themselves to be embrac'd;"

Despite their central role in love's universe, the lovers are doomed never to touch, emphasising the theme of unattainable love.

Lines 21-24

Unless the giddy heaven fall,

And earth some new convulsion tear;

And, us to join, the world should all

Be cramp'd into a planisphere.

"Unless the giddy heaven fall, / And earth some new convulsion tear;"

The speaker imagines cataclysmic events—heaven falling and the earth tearing apart—as the only way their love could be realised.

"And, us to join, the world should all / Be cramp'd into a planisphere."

This imagery suggests that only by flattening the world into a map could the lovers be brought together, highlighting the extreme improbability of their union.

Lines 25-28

As lines, so loves oblique may well

Themselves in every angle greet;

But ours so truly parallel,

Though infinite, can never meet.

"As lines, so loves oblique may well / Themselves in every angle greet;"

The speaker contrasts their love with lesser loves, which can intersect and meet like oblique lines forming angles.

"But ours so truly parallel, / Though infinite, can never meet."

The speaker's love is compared to parallel lines, which, despite their infinite extension, can never touch, underscoring the perfection and hopelessness of their love.

Lines 29-32

Therefore the love which us doth bind,

But Fate so enviously debars,

Is the conjunction of the mind,

And opposition of the stars.

"Therefore the love which us doth bind, / But Fate so enviously debars,"

The speaker concludes that their love, though it binds them together, is constantly thwarted by Fate's jealousy.

"Is the conjunction of the mind, / And opposition of the stars."

Love is described as a perfect mental union, but one that is eternally opposed by the stars, symbolising destiny's interference.

The Definition of Love by Andrew Marvell (Edexcel A-Level English Literature): Revision Notes