This is one of a number of pastoral poems that Marvell wrote. It takes the form of a dramatic monologue, spoken by the nymph, which begins with an elegy or lament for the death of her fawn and then moves on to raise wider spiritual and philosophical issues.

In general, Marvell’s pastoralism centres on a garden, rather than the open countryside. This poem contains both.

There is a clear historical context; the devastation caused by the English Civil War. ‘The wanton Troopers' are therefore soldiers of one of the armies. They have caused needless suffering and death, not only to the faun and to the girl who loved it, but also to the nation as happens only too frequently in civil wars. The faun is therefore a metaphor for needless destruction.

Again, the nymph may be a girl that Marvell knew, whose pet deer really was shot. By using hunting imagery and a pastoral setting he is enhancing the drama. Similar hunting imagery is used in his poem An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland.

Structure
This is a long single stanza poem, writing in iambic tetrameters, that is, four iambs or metrical feet per line, a iamb being one unstressed followed by one stressed syllable. There is a regular AABBCC etc rhyme scheme, forming couplets. The effect is to create a smooth flowing narrative that draws the reader in as the story is told.

Language and Imagery
The voice is that of the speaker, a nymph, using the first person singular pronoun ‘I’. The language is deceptively simple, suitable for a girl in a pastoral setting, but with classical and Christian references (for example the flowers that symbolise the Virgin Mary) that demonstrate the poet’s learning. It is full of symbolism which is open to interpretation. The nymph may symbolise innocence, the fawn is also innocent and sacrificed, like the nation ravaged by Civil War, the garden may signify the Garden of Eden, and the Troopers are the force of sin and destruction. The detailed annotations provide deeper analysis.