Andrew Marvell
Andrew Marvell
Andrew Marvellwas an English metaphysical poet, satirist and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1659 and 1678. During the Commonwealth period he was a colleague and friend of John Milton. His poems range from the love-song "To His Coy Mistress", to evocations of an aristocratic country house and garden in "Upon Appleton House" and "The Garden", the political address "An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland", and the later personal and political satires...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth31 March 1621
Self-preservation, nature's first great law, all the creatures, except man, doth awe.
Had we but world enough, and time, this coyness, lady, were no crime.
But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near.
Twas beyond a mortal's share To wander solitary there: Two paradises 'twere in one To live in paradise alone.
Ye country comets, that portend No war, nor prince's funeral, Shining unto no higher end Than to presage the grasses fall. . . .
Let us roll all our strength, and all Our sweetness, up into one ball: And tear our pleasures with rough strife, Through the iron gates of life. Thus, though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.
How fit he is to sway That can so well obey.
Though I carry always some ill-nature about me, yet it is, I hope, no more than is in this world necessary for a preservative.
What wondrous life is this I lead! Ripe apples drop about my head.
Music, the mosaic of the air.
So much one man can do that does both act and know.
Among the blind the one-eyed blinkard reigns
How vainly men themselves amaze, / To win the palm, the oak, or bays; / And their incessant labours see / Crowned from some single herb or tree.
But Fate does iron wedges drive, And always crowds itself betwixt.