Andrew Marvell
Andrew Marvell (1621 - 1678) was an English poet and politician who is almost as enigmatic now as he was in his lifetime. Periods of his life are virtually unknown, and he wrote little that was self-revelatory. He composed love poetry, but had no known liaisons, unless with the woman who after his death claimed to have been married to him. His writings praised and mocked both sides in the English Civil War, and the only consistency that can be detected is a disposition to religious toleration. He was suspected to be the author of various anonymous verse satires (some still of disputed authorship), though he had also written beautiful lyrics and other poems not published till after his death. The one famous publication he put his name to in his life was a controversial prose work.[1]
He was born on 31 March 1621 in the East Riding of Yorkshire, the fourth child and first son of a clergyman, who three years later moved to become a lecturer (a clergyman without a living, paid for by voluntary contributions) at Kingston upon Hull. He attended Trinity College, Cambridge, where he is known to have written Latin and Greek poetry. His mother died in 1638 and his father in 1640. In 1641 or 1642 he is known to have gone abroad for about four years, probably as tutor to a gentleman's son. He was said to have gone to the Low Countries, France, Italy and Spain, and one of his satires is based in Rome.[2]