Andrew Marvell: Poems Lesson Plan

What are the conventions of pastoral poetry? How are those conventions employed in "The Garden"?

Many students may have never encountered pastoral poetry before, and may initially respond to this question only with guesses. Others who are more perceptive may try to reverse-engineer their way to an answer by looking at some of the characteristics of "The Garden" that would seem to fit under this rubric. First and foremost among these characteristics would be the praising of a simpler life in the countryside over the a life spent among the urban artifice of human beings. But as the teacher should point out, by not including a shepherd as its main character, "The Garden"...