Andrew Marvel lived through some of the most momentous events in English history, but his poetry is detached and private, mostly lyrical, strikingly original in its combining of existing traditions, and seemingly untouched for the most part by what was happening around him. He travelled on the continent, worked for the government of Oliver Cromwell, and later acted as MP for Hull after the Restoration of Charles II. This new selection of Marvell's verse, fully annotated for the student and general reader, includes the political and satiric verses for which he was primarily remembered in the century after his death, but accords pride of place to Marvel's finest achievement - his lyric poetry.