Colors

If anyone has ever accused you of using "colorful language," it probably means that you've been walking between risqué and wittily irreverent. This is a fine line to tread, and Marvell's use of color (the ROY G. BIV kind) adds a significant amount of color (the saucy kind) to "The Garden." And that little extra sass is one of the reasons this poem really seems to come alive when you read it; Marvell is great at weaving in sensory detail, but what makes his descriptions spark is the double-meaning or symbolic implications of the words he chooses. 

• Line 17: White and red are big time contributors to the realm of color symbolism. Conveniently for us, they're also typically associated with certain flowers (white for lilies, red for roses) which also plays into our garden setting. As you might have guessed, white and lilies are symbolic of innocence while their sexier counterpart, the red rose, represents passion and love.
• Line 18: In spite of its association with fertility and new life, green doesn't often show up in poems that contain words like "amorous." Marvell's description and the speaker's preference for "amorous green," then, are one clue that this poem might not be going in a direction we expect.
• Line 49: Green continues to represent fertility and new life in this line, although this time Marvell seems to be referring to both the fertility of the mind and the birth of new thoughts as well as the green shade provided by the garden plants.
• Line 54: Silver is a tricky one, and it's not a color we see pop up too terribly often in poetry. Here, Marvell seems to be banking on silver's status as a cool, shiny color and playing up its ability to reflect what's around it.