The poet Andrew Marvell
The poet Andrew Marvell was
born on the 31st March 1621 in the rectory of Wine stead near Hull
in Yorkshire, England. He was the fourth child and first son of his parents. The
fifth and last child of the family.
In 1624
his family moved from Wine stead to Hull when Andrew was three and a half years
old. There Andrew was admitted to the Grammar School which had strong
connections with Cambridge University. At the age of twelve, Andrew proceeded
to Cambridge where he matriculated as a sizar of Trinity College.
In 1638 he
was admitted a scholar of his college and in 1639 took his B.A. degree. At
Cambridge he is believed to have written some poetry.
Andrew‘s
mother died in 1638, and after a few months his father remarried. But in
January, 1641, Andrew’s father too died, having got drowned while crossing the
river Humber by boat. Andrew was at that time still at Cambridge, working for
his M.A. Very little is known of the circumstances of Andrew’s life at this
time. In 1642 he took up residence in London.
From 1642 to 1644, Andrew Marvell went abroad, travelling in Holland, France, Italy and Spain; but details of this European tour are not available, which he had already studied, he now went on to learn Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish, giving roughly one year to each of these languages. This fact is collaborated by the testimony of John Milton who wrote that Marvell spent these years “to very good purpose and the gaining of those four languages’. When Marvell returned to London, the first poem he wrote for publication was entitled “To His Noble Friend Mr. Richard Lovelace upon His Poems which can confidently be dated in December 1647. (Marvell and Lovelace had been friends from their Cambridge days). In 1648 Marvell Wrote An Elegy Upon the Death of My Lord Francis Villiers. His friend Lord Francis and taken part in a minor Royalist rising and been killed in July 1648. Marvell wrote another elegy a year later, Upon the Death of Lord Hastings. He wrote two poems in 1650. An Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland in July, and Tom May’s Death in December. Both these poems have a London background.
From 1642 to 1644, Andrew Marvell went abroad, travelling in Holland, France, Italy and Spain; but details of this European tour are not available, which he had already studied, he now went on to learn Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish, giving roughly one year to each of these languages. This fact is collaborated by the testimony of John Milton who wrote that Marvell spent these years “to very good purpose and the gaining of those four languages’. When Marvell returned to London, the first poem he wrote for publication was entitled “To His Noble Friend Mr. Richard Lovelace upon His Poems which can confidently be dated in December 1647. (Marvell and Lovelace had been friends from their Cambridge days). In 1648 Marvell Wrote An Elegy Upon the Death of My Lord Francis Villiers. His friend Lord Francis and taken part in a minor Royalist rising and been killed in July 1648. Marvell wrote another elegy a year later, Upon the Death of Lord Hastings. He wrote two poems in 1650. An Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland in July, and Tom May’s Death in December. Both these poems have a London background.
On the 16th August 1678 Marvell died of
malaria.
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