Andrew Marvell

Born in 1621, Marvell grew up in the Yorkshire town of Hull where his father, Reverend Andrew Marvell, was a lecturer at Holy Trinity Church and master of the Charterhouse. Like Christopher Marlowe, there is not much know about Marvell and many inconsistencies prevail regarding his work. Marvell began his studies at Trinity College, Cambridge, when he was 12. Four years later two of Marvell's poems, one in Latin and one in Greek, were published in an anthology of Cambridge poets.

Marvell received a BA in 1639 and had intended to remain at Trinity, however, when his father drowned, he abandoned his studies. During the 1640's Marvell traveled extensively on the Continent, adding Dutch, French, Spanish, and Italian, to his Latin and Greek. Marvell spent most of the 1650's working as a tutor and scholars believe that many of Marvell's most-important lyrics were written in this period. Marvell's most profound poem, "Upon Appleton House," a poem crucial to his development both as man and as poet was published at that time. Here he examines the competing claims of public service and the search for personal insight. To the same period probably belong Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress," and "The Definition of Love."

In 1657, due to the efforts of John Milton, Marvell was appointed Milton's Latin secretary, a post Marvell held until his election to Parliament in 1660. During his political career nothing escaped his eye and he lampooned the court and parliament. Marvell, now considered one of the greatest poets of the 17th century, published very little of his scathing political satire and complex lyric verse in his lifetime. The collection of Marvell's work did not appear until 1681, three years after his death.

In his quiet way, Marvell seems to have been helpful after the  Restoration in 1660 in saving Milton from an extended jail term and possible execution. In 1678, after 18 years in Parliament, Marvell died rather suddenly of a fever. Gossip of the time suggested that the Jesuits (a target of Marvell's satire) had poisoned him. After his death he was remembered as a fierce and loyal patriot.

  "Ye living lamps, by whose dear light The nightingale does sit so late; And studying all the summer night, Her matchless songs does meditate."

from "The Mower to the Glow-worm" Andrew Marvell

To His
Coy Mistress

Had we but world enough and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love's day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges' side
Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood;
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow.
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, lady, you deserve this state;
Nor would I love at lower rate.
But at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long-preserved virginity;
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust.
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.
Now, therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like am'rous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapped pow'r.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life.
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.