Warren's "All the King's Men" and Arnold's "To Marguerite-Continued"

Abstract

N AIDWAY THROUGH Chapter 8 of All the King's Men, Willie Stark WIYI sends Jack Burden to apply political pressure upon Judge Irwin. Willie is trying to preserve the reputation of his son Tom and to protect his covert relationship with Anne Stanton. Willie knows that Jack has got something on the Judge. But, before Jack visits old Irwin, he strolls along the beach and tennis courts he and Anne knew as children. The youthful voices he hears heighten Jack's nostalgia. Somewhat cynically, somewhat philosophically, he recalls his broken romance with Anne and wishes he could tell the young tennis players the wisdom of the Great Twitch, of how life will overtake and crush innocent experience. He promptly dismisses the thought and decides on a quick swim. Jack's words are important: I idled out a long way, and floated around in the bay, which is a corner of the Gulf of Mexico, which is a corner of the great, salt, unplumbed waters of the world, and got back in time for lunch.' Jack Burden's reflection on his own microcosmic condition echoes the final verse of Matthew Arnold's poem, To Marguerite-Continued, also on the subject of isolation and unfulfilled ambition. The final stanza reads,