Essays on Andrew Marvell

31 March 1621

16 August 1678

Poet

• "To His Coy Mistress"
• "The Garden"
• "An Horatian Ode"

31 March 1621 – 16 August 1678

Andrew Marvell was an English poet whose political reputation overshadowed that of his poetry until the 20th century. He is now considered to be one of the best Metaphysical poets.

"To His Coy Mistress", "The Garden", "An Horatian Ode"

The principal themes of Marvell's poetry include the transience of life, natural beauty, poetic imagination, spirituality, isolation, and the theme of body and inner soul clash.

Marvell is said to have adhered to the established stylized forms of his contemporary neoclassical tradition. These include the carpe diem lyric tradition which also forms the basis of his famous lyric "To His Coy Mistress". He adopted familiar forms and infused them with his unique conceits, analogies, reflections and preoccupations with larger questions about life and death.

While Marvell’s political reputation has faded and his reputation as a satirist is on a par with others of his time, his small body of lyric poems, first recommended in the 19th century by Charles Lamb, has since appealed to many readers, and in the 20th century he came to be considered one of the most notable poets of his century.

“Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.”
“Music, the mosaic of the air”
“If these the Times, then this must be the Man.”