To His Coy Mistress

Andrew Marvell

Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love's day;
Thou by the Indian Ganges' side
Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood;
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow.
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.

But at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long preserv'd virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust.
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace.

Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may;
And now, like am'rous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour,
Than languish in his slow-chapp'd power.
Let us roll all our strength, and all
Our sweetness, up into one ball;
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life.
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.

1. Vocabulary: coy (title), Humber (7), transpires (35). "Mistress" (title) has the now archaic meaning of sweetheart; "slow-chapped" (40) derives from chap, meaning jaw.

2. What is the speaker urging his sweetheart to do? Why is she being "coy"?

The speaker is urging his mistress to live life to its fullest, and in the moment. He's propbably trying to get her to have sex with him by employing the "we could die tomorrow" argument, and that is most likely why she is being so very coy.

3. Outline the speaker's argument in the three sentences that begin with the words If, But, and Therefore. Is the argument valid?

The speaker argues that time (death) could come whenever, its "winged chariot" at his back already. He mentions that the dead do not embrace, and therefore he and his mistress should take advantage of their youth.

4. Explain the appropriateness of "vegetable love" (11). What simile in the third section contrasts with it and how? What image in the third section contrasts with the distance between the Ganges and the Humber? Of what would the speaker be "complaining" by the Humber (7)?

I like the use of vegetable love when compared to the second section, which basically talks about decomp and decay and worms eating away. Both seems like a slow process, both involve dirt (in usual burials). This is contrasted i. the third section, when youth "sits on [...] skin like morning dew." One image, vegetables, draws images of roots and dirt, the other conjures up images of youth and freshness.

In the third section, the image of the speaker and his sweetheart curling up into one ball contrasts the distance of the Ganges and Humber, next to which the speaker might be complaining about his sweetheart's distance or her coyness.

5. Explain the figures in lines 22, 24, and 40 and their implications.

6. Explain the last two lines. For what is "sun" a metonymy?

The sun is a metonymy for time and, therefore, death, which approaches with the passing of time. The speaker argues that, if he and his mistress cannot avoid death, they should live life to the fullest and force death to catch up to them.

7. Is this poem principally about love or about time? If the latter, what might love represent? What philosophy is the poet advancing?

I think this poem is primarily about time, with love representing youth and it's rash decisions. The poet is advancing the idea of living life to the fullest, and not wasting a moment.