Night Waves - Andrew Marvell

Matthew Sweet and biographer Nigel Smith discuss the 17th Century poet Andrew Marvell, whose personal life is shrouded in mystery. A prominent civil servant under Cromwell and regarded as a father to the liberal tradition, Marvell is also suspected of being a spy, and a secret homosexual. Nigel Smith, Professor of English at Princeton University and President of the Andrew Marvell Society, has spent many years researching the archives to produce the fullest account yet of the metaphysical poet's life and work, Andrew Marvell: The Chamelon. From his upbringing in Hull and early employment as a tutor to an aristocrat on the Grand Tour, to the suspicious circumstances surrounding his death. Marvell's most famous poems are To His Coy Mistress, The Garden, An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland, and the country house poem Upon Appleton House. Producer: Fiona McLean.