Although not as well known as 'To His Coy Mistress' and 'An Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell's Return', (which are probably two of his well known pieces of work) Andrew Marvell's "Bermudas" is a poem which was written during a period, in the seventeenth century, when the country was marred by political and religious conflicts. It was a century known as the 'history of hurts' (Norton,1996,p66) where Kings had been deposed and churches were trying to lay down the law on religious factions, by implementing their own laws and regulations. One of these factions was the Puritans. It was also a time in history when England was expanding its empire around the world, with The Bermuda islands being one of its many expansions.
             It was during his stay with his young ward, at the house of the Puritan Minister, John Oxenbridge, that Marvell wrote the poem 'Bermudas.' Oxenbridge was the then Commissioner and Minister for the Bermuda islands and on several occasions had to undertake this journey to the island of Bermuda. One assumes it was the Oxenbridge's family's 'puritan holiness and cheerfulness' (Craze, 1979, p266) whilst undertaking these journeys to islands, is what the inspired Marvell to write about 'Bermudas'.
             The poem itself tells the story of a group of singers who undertake this journey to an 'isle of unknown' where they feel it will be a 'lot kinder' than the place where they have just left. It is here where the reader assumes that Marvell is trying to emphasise the point of how far one has to go to be allowed the freedom to practice ones' beliefs, albeit religious ones. In this case it was the beliefs of John Oxenbridge who, according to Michael Craze in The Life and Lyrics of Andrew Marvell had fled the tyranny of the Archbishop Laud of the Magdalen Hall fellowship" (Craze, 1979, p272). It is under these
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