Andrew Marvell

Claire Warwick (University of Durham)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

Andrew Marvell was born in 1621 at Winstead in Holness, in South Yorkshire. He was the son of a clergyman, who became lecturer at Holy Trinity Church in nearby Hull when Andrew was three. The family moved there, and Andrew attended the grammar school. He remained strongly associated with the city of Hull, and with Yorkshire throughout most of his life, and was later to immortalise the River Humber in what is probably his best known poem “To his Coy Mistress”, musing that “I by the tide of Humber would complain”. This is typical of a strong sense of identification with place and setting which characterises many of Marvell's poems.

In 1633 Marvell went to Trinity College, Cambridge. He was clearly not well resourced, since he was a sizar, a student who was funded by working for the

1621 words

Citation: Warwick, Claire. "Andrew Marvell". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 June 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5052, accessed 19 March 2024.]

5052 Andrew Marvell 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.