Marinism (Italian: marinismo, or secentismo, "17th century") is the name now given to an ornate, witty style of poetry and verse drama written in imitation of Giambattista Marino (1569–1625), following in particular La Lira and L'Adone.
The critic James V. Mirollo, the author of the first monograph in English on the subject, distinguished the terms as follows:[1]
Marinismo first appeared in the last [19th] century as a label for the themes and techniques of Marino and his followers. It continues to be used synonymously with secentismo and concettismo, although the former has more pejorative connotations as well as wider cultural implications, while the latter embraces the European practice of the witty style. Marinista and Marinisti go back to the seicento [17th century]: Stigliani [a detractor] refers [in [[1627 in literature|1627]]] to Marino's followers as i Marinisti (Occhiale, p.516). Elsewhere (Epist., II, p. 304) he speaks of la trama marinesca (the Marinesque intrigue).
The following discussion is based on Mirollo's analysis.
The Marinist poet never hesitated to embark on a long string of comparisons with nature, most of them couched as metaphor rather than simile because this allowed for more striking statements. "There was hardly an area of human experience that could not be pressed into service for a comparison." Nevertheless, Marino leans heavily on both classical mythology and Christian imagery, adapting it freely to create a huge number of memorable word pictures: "gems, minerals, and precious metals [...] flowers (especially the rose and the lily), birds, fire, snow, the seasons, the sea, and, above all, sun and stars [...] milk, ivory, parturition, the arts and sciences, and a variety of actions and emotions useful for personification".
Although it has some similarities with other European Baroque movements, such as Euphuism, préciosité and Culteranismo, Marinism is essentially an Italian literary phenomenon. However its influence is detectable in English poets such as Richard Crashaw, who translated the first book of Marino’s religious poem La strage degli innocenti (The Massacre of the Innocents), William Drummond of Hawthornden, whose poetry bear marks of a close study of Marino, and Edward Sherburne. Apart from Marino himself, Marinists of note include Claudio Achillini, Giuseppe Artale, Ciro di Pers, Vincenzo da Filicaja, Girolamo Fontanella, Giacomo Lubrano, Marcello Macedonio, Giovan Francesco Maia Materdona, Bernardo Morando, Girolamo Preti, and Giovan Leone Sempronio.