Andrew Marvell

Andrew Marvell 1621-1678

Andrew Marvell was a poet of the Metaphysical era, the poems of which contained wit, conceits, and in which "philosophical and spiritual subjects were approached with reason and often concluded in paradox." 

"On a Drop of Dew"

See how the orient dew,

Shed from the bosom of the morn   

   Into the blowing roses,

Yet careless of its mansion new,

For the clear region where ’twas born   

   Round in itself incloses:

   And in its little globe’s extent,

Frames as it can its native element.

   How it the purple flow’r does slight,   

      Scarce touching where it lies,

   But gazing back upon the skies,   

      Shines with a mournful light,

         Like its own tear,

Because so long divided from the sphere.

   Restless it rolls and unsecure,

      Trembling lest it grow impure,

   Till the warm sun pity its pain,   

And to the skies exhale it back again.

      So the soul, that drop, that ray   

Of the clear fountain of eternal day,   

Could it within the human flow’r be seen,

      Remembering still its former height,

      Shuns the sweet leaves and blossoms green,

      And recollecting its own light,

Does, in its pure and circling thoughts, express

The greater heaven in an heaven less.   

      In how coy a figure wound,   

      Every way it turns away:   

      So the world excluding round,   

      Yet receiving in the day,

      Dark beneath, but bright above,

      Here disdaining, there in love.

   How loose and easy hence to go,

   How girt and ready to ascend,

   Moving but on a point below,

   It all about does upwards bend.

Such did the manna’s sacred dew distill,   

White and entire, though congealed and chill,   

Congealed on earth : but does, dissolving, run   

Into the glories of th’ almighty sun.

This poem fits in with the metaphysical bunch in the most obvious way which is the conceit, comparing the human soul to a dew drop. The course of the dew drop's life is followed in this poem, from its creation, to its evaporation. The soul takes this same journey, yearning to "evaporate" back into heaven, where it rightfully belongs, according to the Platonic beliefs of the metaphysical poets. 

I think what Marvell was trying to say with this poem was that the souls of people can become spoiled on earth what with all the bad influences and temptation and the like, as is suggested by the phrase "congealed on earth...into the glories of th' almighty sun." But in heaven, the souls can be pure and free. The souls yearn to be taken there by God, just like the drop of dew yearns to be evaporated by the sun. 

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5662#sthash.cA4izr5Q.dpuf