Andrew Marvell

Biography of Andrew Marvell (1621 – 1678)

Andrew Marvell
Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)

Andrew Marvell (March 31, 1621 – August 16, 1678) was an English metaphysical poet, and the son of an Anglican clergyman. As a metaphysical, he is associated with John Donne, George Herbert, and Ben Jonson. He was the first assistant of John Milton.

After attending Cambridge, Marvell went on the Grand Tour; while England was embroiled in a civil war from 1642 to 1647, Marvell was on the continent. After returning, he worked as tutor to the daughter of Thomas Fairfax, who had recently given command of Parliamentary army to Oliver Cromwell. In 1657, Marvell joined Milton, who by that time had lost his sight, in the post of Latin secretary to Cromwell’s Council of State. In 1659 he was elected to Parliament from his hometown of Hull in Yorkshire; in 1660 the monarchy was restored. His political maneuvering must have been skilful, because he not only avoided all punishment for his cooperation with republicanism but helped convince the government of Charles II not to execute Milton for his antimonarchical writings and revolutionary activities. (Marvell also contributed an eloquent prefatory poem to the second edition of Paradise Lost.)

From 1659 until his death, Marvell was a conscientious member of Parliament, answering letters from his constituents and going on two diplomatic missions, one to Holland and the other to Russia. He also wrote prose satires (anonymously, of course) criticizing the monarchy, defending Puritan dissenters, and denouncing censorship.

Famous poems include To His Coy Mistress ( to which T. S. Eliot refers in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock) and The Garden.

Biography By: This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License and uses material adapted in whole or in part from the Wikipedia article on Andrew Marvell.

Poems By Andrew Marvell

Miscellaneous

A Dialogue Between the Resolved Soul, And Created Pleasure (No Comments »)
A Dialogue Between The Soul And Body (No Comments »)
A Dialogue Between Thyrsis And Dorinda (No Comments »)
A Dialogue, Between the Resolved Soul, And Created Pleasure (No Comments »)
A Garden, Written after the Civil Wars (No Comments »)
A Letter To Doctor Ingelo, then With My Lord Whitlock, Amba (No Comments »)
A Poem Upon The Death Of O.C. (No Comments »)
Aliter (No Comments »)
Ametas And Thestylis Making Hay-Ropes (No Comments »)
An Epitaph (No Comments »)
An Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland (No Comments »)
Bermudas (No Comments »)
Blake’s Victory (No Comments »)
Clorinda And Damon (No Comments »)
Cromwell’s Return (No Comments »)
Damon The Mower (No Comments »)
Daphnis And Chloe (No Comments »)
Dignissimo Suo Amico Doctori Wittie. De Translatione Vulgi (No Comments »)
Edmundi Trotii Epitaphium (No Comments »)
Epigramma in Duos montes Amosclivum Et Bilboreum (No Comments »)
Eyes And Tears (No Comments »)
First Anniversary (No Comments »)
Fleckno, an English Priest at Rome (No Comments »)
Hortus (No Comments »)
In Effigiem Oliveri Cromwell (No Comments »)
Last Instructions to a Painter (No Comments »)
Mourning (No Comments »)
Music’s Empire (No Comments »)
On A Drop Of Dew (No Comments »)
On Mr. Milton’s Paradise Lost (No Comments »)
On The Victory Obtained By Blake Over the Spaniards, In The Bay Of Scanctacruze, In The Island Of teneriff.1657 (No Comments »)
Ros (No Comments »)
Senec. Traged. Ex Thyeste Chor.2 (No Comments »)
The Character Of Holland (No Comments »)
The Coronet (No Comments »)
The Death of Cromwell (No Comments »)
The Definition Of Love (No Comments »)
The Fair Singer (No Comments »)
The First Anniversary Of The Government Under O.C. (No Comments »)
The Gallery (No Comments »)
The Garden (No Comments »)
The Match (No Comments »)
The Mower Against Gardens (No Comments »)
The Mower To The Glo-Worms (No Comments »)
The Mower’s Song (No Comments »)
The Nymph Complaining For The Death Of Her Faun (No Comments »)
The Picture Of Little T.C. In A Prospect Of Flowers (No Comments »)
The Unfortunate Lover (No Comments »)
Thoughts in a Garden (No Comments »)
To Christina, Queen of Sweden (No Comments »)
To His Coy Mistress (No Comments »)
To His Noble Friend, Mr. Richard Lovelace, Upon His Poems (No Comments »)
To His Worthy Friend Doctor Witty Upon His Translation Of The Popular Errors (No Comments »)
To Songs At the Marriage Of The Lord Fauconberg And The Lady Mary Cromwell (No Comments »)
Tom May’s Death (No Comments »)
Translated (No Comments »)
Upon An Eunuch; A Poet. Fragment (No Comments »)
Upon Appleton House, to My Lord Fairfax (No Comments »)
Upon The Hill And Grove At Bill-borow (No Comments »)
Young Love (No Comments »)