Andrew Marvell was born in Winestead in Holderness Yorkshire, England; March 31, 1621 and died in London England August 18, 1678. He was called the "master of octosyllabic". The fourth child and only surviving son of Andrew Marvell Sr., clergyman. In 1624 his dad became lecturer at Holy Trinity Church in Hull. He represented city in parliament for last eighteen years. December 14, 1633 young Marvell entered Trinity College, Cambridge. 1637 he was converted by Jesuits and ran away to London his father retrieved him and returned him to Cambridge. In 1641 he left Cambridge receiving his Bachelors degree. The Turbulent 40's not were not well recorded. But during this period he learned Dutch, French, Italian, and Spanish. Andrew studied fencing in Spain and went to Rome to visit "impoverished" English catholic priest, Flecknoe, whom he made the butt of a satiric poem. He avoided direct part in the English Civil War. He returned to England in late 1640's. From 1650-1652 Marvell was tutor to Mary Fairfax daughter of parliamentary general. Lord Fairfax, whose resignation in 1650, left Cromwell dominant.
In September 1657, Marvell received government post becoming Latin secretary sharing responsibility for correspondence with foreign government. In 1659 Corporation of Hull chose him to represent them in parliament and he was a member for life. He was twice reelected and made the transition to the Restoration of Charles II with ease. The questions of toleration versus conformity was a very important one in politics of 1672, with Charles II.
By 1674 he was involved in Clandestine activities as a member of a pro-dutch "fifth column" and made many secret trips to Holland. He died on August 18, 1678 and his death was a suspected political murder.
The most widely anthological and best of Marvell's poems is " To His Coy Mistress." It is not only a seductive poem, but also a deduction poem, in which the theme of carpe diem is presented as a syllogism: (1) If there were world enough and time, the lady's coyness would not be a crime; (2) There is not world enough and time; (3) therefore, this coyness may or may not be a crime, Marvell must have been aware that his poem depended upon flawed logic; he may have meant it to be ironically typical of the desperate reasoning employed by would-be-seducers.
In the first section of the poem, the speaker describes the vast amounts of time ("An age at
least to every part") and space (from the Ganges to the Humber) hew would devote to his love if
he could. This apparently gracious statement of patience is then juxtaposed with the striking
image of "Times's wing'ed chariot hurrying near" and the resultant "Deserts of vast eternity."
"Deserts," meaning "unpeopled places," is emphasized by the shift of the stress to the first syllable
of the line. There follows the arresting depiction of the drawbacks of postmortem chastity, with
worms "trying" the lady's "long preserved virginity," as her "quaint honor" turns to dust. Imagery
of corruption was not unusual in carpe diem poems, and it also occurs (the momento mori theme)
in visual arts of the period; Marvell's lines are, however, remarkably explicit and must have been
devised to shock and disgust. The next lines use "sound psychology" which frightens the lady into
the comfort of her lover's arms. The speaker rescues himself from the danger of excessive
morbidity with the urbanely ironic comment, "The grave's fine and private place,/ But none, I
think, do there embrace." This makes the transition to the last section of the poem, wherein the
speaker, having shown that however limitless time and space may intrinsically be, they are to
mortals very limited, offers his solution. The answer is to take energetic action. The formerly coy
mistress, now described (either in hope or in fact) as having a "willing soul" with "instant fires" is
invited to join the speaker in "one ball" of strength and sweetness, which will tear "thorough the
iron gates of life." This third section of the poem is an addition not typical of carpe diem poems,
which usually suggest rather than delineate the consummation. The amorous couple, the speaker
indicates, should enthusiastically embrace the inevitable and each other. In its three section, "To
His Coy Mistress" presents first a cheerful and generous offering of limitless time and space, then
a chilling reminder that human life is very limited, and finally a frenzied but extraordinarily
powerful invitation to break through and transcend all limits.