Diotima’s Scaffolding: Marvell’s Politics and the Neoplatonic View of Love in the Mower Poems and ‘The Definition of Love’

When read alongside Diotima’s Ladder of Love, recounted in the Symposium, Marvell’s mower poems and ‘The Definition of Love’ seem to be deeply political works. They do not, however, appear to take deeply political positions. They situate their speakers and characters in terms comparable to the Ladder of Love. In so doing, they show a Christian humanist use of love that accounts for Marvell’s neutral wit. Our poet created mirrors for gentry in republican England that encouraged the creation and maintenance of networks based on love. His focus moves away from national politics toward county life and the need to move past the parliamentary-royalist divide. In short, by reading these four poems beside the Ladder of Love, we better understand how Marvell manages to be political without clearly expressing his religious or political positions.