A Maypole – more information

Jonathan Swift wrote ‘A Maypole’ in 1725, some 65 years after the death of Oliver Cromwell and 63 years after the restoration of the Monarchy in England. So,with no apparent link, why would Swift’s poem be about anything other than a maypole?

In the closing lines of the poem, Swift refers to ‘Cromwellians’ and the restoring of "the church, the king and me" and it is here that the link is forged…… The poem appears to be looking back at a volatile time in English history at the centre of which was one Oliver Cromwell….

Oliver Cromwell:

Cromwell was one of the leaders of the New Model Army which defeated the royalists in the English Civil War thus recreating English parliament and making England into a Republican Commonwealth in 1649. Cromwell himself was made Lord Protector of the Commonwealth. In spite of his desire that the country not be led by a monarch, Cromwell was addressed as ‘your highness’ and was paid the very ‘royal’ sum of £100,000 per year for his role! He did, however, refuse the wearing of royal regalia and robes for his accession to the role of Lord Protector, preferring to dress all in black.

Life in England under Cromwell changed in many ways, and Cromwell also had an eye on bringing Ireland and Scotland under his new regime. The Irish were said to have suffered greatly for giving the defeated royalists shelter and allowing them to re-group in their land.

Cromwell himself was a very religious man – a puritan – and he believed that everyone in England should follow his example of living life by adhering strictly to the writings in the Bible. Pointless enjoyment was frowned upon (hence the removal of maypoles from village greens), many inns and theatres were closed down, and most sports were banned. The wearing of make up and bright coloured clothing was also banned. Citizens wore black and white. The punishments for flouting any of these laws ranged from heavy fines, to a prison sentence or a whipping. Christmas, as the people of England had celebrated it at that time, was banned. Sunday obligations were sacrosanct and absolutely no work of any kind was to be done on that day; citizens were to attend church at least twice on Sunday.

In spite of his having devised these rules for all citizens to ‘live a pure life’ by, Cromwell himself was said to have enjoyed music, hunting and playing bowls, and his daughter’s wedding was celebrated with full-scale entertainment and lavish frivolity.

However, Cromwell’s republican triumph over the royalists was not to endure as, 2 years after his death in 1658, the Cavaliers (royalists) defeated the Roundheads (republicans) and the monarchy was restored to England. Ironically, Cromwell had been offered the crown in his lifetime, but had refused it. Upon his death, tho’ he had been buried in Westminster Abbey after a hugely extravagant state funeral based on that of a previous monarch. When the royalists returned to power the monarch decreed that Cromwell’s body be exhumed and posthumously executed by beheading.

Oliver Cromwell was, and still is considered, a somewhat controversial historical figure who has divided opinion for centuries as to whether he was a man who tried to do good for England and her people but struggled, or a power-hungry fiend who caused such division in the British Isles that resentment still lies smouldering over 300 years later.

Read more about Oliver Cromwell

 

Jonathan Swift and ‘A Maypole’

Swift was born in Dublin to an English mother and Irish father who died before Jonathan’s birth, leaving him to be brought up in Ireland when his mother returned to England alone.. Swift, in his poem refers to the Cromwellians in an unsavoury light, and delights in the restoration of the monarchy, the church (presumably the church of his faith which would have suffered under the Cromwell regime as the fight to bring Ireland under English rule raged) and the maypole which represents the traditional forms of enjoyment banned under Cromwell’s rule.

Read more about Jonathan Swift

 

So, is this poem simply a tribute to a Maypole? Or is it a metaphor for England under Cromwell’s rule?

Read the poem again, and see what you think. Do you see the connections? Has your view of the poem changed?

Learn the definitons of some vocabulary in these passages