A Metaphysical Reflection on Transience and Origin

See how the orient dew, Shed from the bosom of the morn Into the blowing roses, Yet careless of its mansion new, For the clear region where ’twas born Round in itself incloses: And in its little globe’s extent, Frames as it can its native element. How it the purple flow’r does slight, Scarce touching where it lies, But gazing back upon the skies, Shines with a mournful light, Like its own tear, Because so long divided from the sphere. Restless it rolls and unsecure, Trembling lest it grow impure, Till the warm sun pity its pain, And to the skies exhale it back again. So the soul, that drop, that ray Of the clear fountain of eternal day, Could it within the human flow’r be seen, Remembering still its former height, Shuns the sweet leaves and blossoms green, And recollecting its own light, Does, in its pure and circling thoughts, express The greater heaven in an heaven less. In how coy a figure wound, Every way it turns away: So the world excluding round, Yet receiving in the day, Dark beneath, but bright above, Here disdaining, there in love. How loose and easy hence to go, How girt and ready to ascend, Moving but on a point below, It all about does upwards bend. Such did the manna’s sacred dew distill, White and entire, though congealed and chill, Congealed on earth : but does, dissolving, run Into the glories of th’ almighty sun. • Summary: The central idea in the poem, ‘On a Drop of Dew’ by Andrew Marvell, is that the human soul comes into this world from heaven and that it is anxious to go back there as soon as possible. The two opening stanzas describe a dew-drop as it lies, trembling, on a rose-petal. The dew-drop is scornful of the flower on which it lies, and keeps gazing at the sky from where it came. It feels restless all the time till the sun takes pity on it and arranges for its flight back to heaven (through the process of evaporation). The human soul is also like a dew-drop. The human soul also comes into this world from heaven, and still remembering its original abode. The soul avoids contact with the pleasures and attractions of this world because it keeps thinking of its real home which is heaven. However, its pure thoughts do express its heavenly character even though it has to dwell in an inferior abode which is the human body. The soul is still in love with heavenly things, and is always in a state of readiness to fly back to heaven. In this respect the soul is like Manna, the heavenly food, which appeared on the earth in a frozen shape and which, after the Israelite had consumed as much of it as they needed, evaporated and went back to the heaven from where it had come. The emblematic feature of a drop is that it is transparent and can absorb light as the soul does. And just as the dewdrop is ready to evaporate as soon as possible, so is the soul. • Lines 1-8 : See how the sparkling dew-drop, which has fallen from the breast of the Morning into the blossoming roses, remains heedless of its new, but temporary abode. The dew-drop originated in the clear regions of heaven, and its round shape seems to enclose within it the round sphere from where it has come. The dew-drop contains the water of which it is made within its tiny, round shape. • Lines 9-18: The dew-drop is scornful of the crimson flower on which it lies. In fact, it seems hardly to touch that flower. On the contrary, the dew-drop keeps looking at the sky wistfully, and shinning with a melancholy light. In its sad mood it sheds a tear, and that tear is the dew-drop itself. The dew-drop is sad because it has been separated from its heavenly sphere for a long time. The dew-drop feels unsafe in this world; it rolls restlessly; and it trembles with fear lest it should become impure by a continued contact with this world. Ultimately the warm sun takes pity on it in its suffering, and helps it to go back to heaven through the process of evaporation. • Lines 19-26 : In the same way the human soul, which is like a dew-drop and which is like a ray of the heavenly sun, comes from heaven and dwell within the human body which is to it what the flower is to the dew-drop. The soul, though not visible, remembers always its original abode in heaven and avoids the pleasures and temptations of this world. The soul has memories of its own original brightness and, through its pure thoughts moving in circles, reveals the true heaven through an inferior heaven which is the soul itself. • Lines: 27-36 : The soul is wound in a very modest figure, and it turns away in every direction. It excludes the round world, and yet allows the light of the heavenly day to fall upon it. It looks dark below on the earth, but bright above in heaven. The soul finds it easy to go away from here (back to heaven), and it will then have sense of freedom. It is prepared and ready to climb to heaven. Treading as a single point below, it is poised for its flight upward. • Lines 37-40: Similar to the soul was Manna, the sacred food which God sent to the Israelites in the form of dew. Manna was white and entire, though it was frozen and cold. Manna was frozen when it appeared on the earth, but it melted and evaporated in the heat of the sun, thus going back to the glory of heaven. In the same way the soul seems frozen here on the earth but it too will go back to the glorious and Almighty Heaven. • Theme: 1) Christian Platonism: Like Philo, the Christian Platonists gave primacy to revelation and regarded Platonic philosophy as the best available instrument for understanding and defending the teachings of Scripture and church tradition. It is the belief that reality is separated into two realms—the physical and the spiritual. This belief is usually accompanied by a denigration of the physical realm. • 2) Microcosm: ‘Remembering still' – this is the source of its sadness, since it remembers loss. But it tries to re-create heaven in preserving its own purity. The drop formation of the dew is again a sign of this: it turns in on itself, trying to absorb as little as possible of the material world. So it becomes a microcosm, ‘The greater heaven in an heaven less', except ‘cosm' derives from ‘cosmos', which means universe, rather than heaven. The reflective language which Marvell uses of the dew-drop - 'Like its own tear' - is a linguistic enactment of the soul shrinking away from involvement in the world.