"Forward Youth" and Marvell's "An Horatian Ode"

Abstract

MARVELL'S "AN HORATIAN ODE" opens with that unquiet figure, the "forward youth"; and yet, despite his prominence, we have never properly understood that figure. Many readings have nodded to him in passing; those who have more closely examined the youth explore buried meanings in Roman poetry to argue that Horace's verse or Lucan's Pharsalia sufficiently explain his mysteries. 1 This essay contends that sources and analogues have led us astray: Marvell's "forward youth" may gesture to classical precedents, but his presence alludes, more importantly, to the poet's preoccupation with youth and the culturally contested role of the young at a particular historical moment. By identifying the forward youth as a recognized social figure we can better grasp his mysteries and the broad political argument about age, authority, and precedent that Marvell's poem offered its audience. 2