Satirist and politician. Vibrant imagery and easy command of rhyming couplets.
Author of a varied array of exquisite lyrics that blend Cavalier grace with Metaphysical wit and complexity, Marvell turned, first, into a panegyrist for the Lord Protector and his regime and then into an increasingly bitter satirist and polemicist, attacking the royal court and the established church in both prose and verse. It is as if the most delicate and elusive of butterflies somehow metamorphosed into a caterpillar.
Andrew Marvell was an English metaphysical poet and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1659 and 1678. As a metaphysical poet, he is associated with John Donne and George Herbert. He was a colleague and friend of John Milton. His poems include `To His Coy Mistress`, `The Garden`, `An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell`s Return from Ireland`, `The Mower`s Song` and the country house poem `Upon Appleton House`.
One of the English "Metaphysical Poets". Educated in Cambridge, he worked as a clerk, traveled abroad, and returned to serve as tutor to Lord Fairfax`s daughter in Yorkshire. In 1657 he was appointed John Milton`s assistant in the Latin secretaryship, and in 1659 he was elected to Parliament, where he served until his death in 1678.
He was one of the chief wits and satirists of his time as well as being a Puritan and a public defender of individual liberty. Today, however, he is known chiefly for his brilliant lyric poetry, which includes “The Garden,” “The Definition of Love,” “Bermudas,” and “To His Coy Mistress,” and for his “Horatian Ode” to Cromwell.
