Andrew Marvell (March 31,1621 – August 16,1678) was an English metaphysical poet, and the son of an Anglican clergyman. As a metaphysical, he is associated with John Donne and George Herbert. He was the first assistant of John Milton.

Marvell was born in Winestead-in-Holderness, Yorkshire.

After attending Trinity College, Cambridge, Marvell went on the Grand Tour; while England was embroiled in a civil war from 1642 to 1647, Marvell was on the continent. After returning, he worked as tutor to the daughter of Thomas Fairfax, who had recently given command of the Parliamentary army to Oliver Cromwell. In 1657, Marvell joined Milton, who by that time had lost his sight, in the post of Latin secretary to Cromwell's Council of State. In 1659 he was elected to Parliament from his hometown of Hull in Yorkshire; in 1660 the monarchy was restored. His political maneuvering must have been skillful, because he not only avoided all punishment for his cooperation with republicanism but helped convince the government of Charles II not to execute John Milton for his antimonarchical writings and revolutionary activities. (Marvell also contributed an eloquent prefatory poem to the second edition of Paradise Lost.)

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