The Complete Poems

Member of Parliament, tutor to Oliver Cromwell’s ward, satirist, and friend of John Milton, Andrew Marvell was one of the most significant poets of the seventeenth century. The Complete Poems demonstrates his unique skill and immense diversity, and includes lyrical love poetry, religious works, and biting satire. From the passionately erotic “To His Coy Mistress” to the astutely political Cromwellian poems and the profoundly spiritual “On a Drop of Dew,” in which he considers the nature of the soul, these works are masterpieces of clarity and metaphysical imagery.

• New introduction by leading scholar Jonathan Bate
• Authoritative edition based on a detailed study of the extant manuscripts
• Also includes chronology, further reading, appendices, notes, and indexes

Member of Parliament, tutor to Oliver Cromwell's ward, satirist, and friend of John Milton, Andrew Marvell was one of the most significant poets of the seventeenth century. The Complete Poems demonstrates his unique skill and immense diversity, and includes lyrical love poetry, religious works, and biting satire. From the passionately erotic “To His Coy Mistress” to the astutely political Cromwellian poems and the profoundly spiritual “On a Drop of Dew,” in which he considers the nature of the soul, these works are masterpieces of clarity and metaphysical imagery.

Andrew Marvell (1621—1678) was one the chief satirists of his time as well as being a Puritan and a public defender of individual liberty. Today he is mostly known for his brilliant lyric poetry.
Elizabeth Story Donno edited numerous Elizabethan and Jacobean texts and taught at Columbia, among other places.
Jonathan Bate is King Alfred Professor of English literature and Leverhulme Research Professor at the University of Liverpool.