Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress"

Andrew Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress"

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 wingéd 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 preserved 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 amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapt 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.

Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress"

• develops a carefully constructed argument where the speaker seeks to persuade his lady to surrender her virginity to him.

• argues for sexual freedom in opposition to empty social proprieties (mores) restricting sexual activity.

• argues against romantic or courtly views of love in favor of a more "honest" eroticism.

• argues that life must be lived to its fullest because life is fleeting (carpe diem).

• expresses an empirical philosophy of life that sees reality--life, love, and human enterprise--in primarily physical and temporal terms and ridicules any "romantic" or "spiritual" view of reality.

• illustrates the clever use of thinly veiled sexual innuendo, erotic metaphor, and mocking humor as aids to sexual conquest.

• argues that, in a world where death rules supreme and time is limited, life's true meaning and purpose can only be found in physical (i.e., sexual) pleasure.

• reveals the speaker's attempt to use the physical pleasures of sex to resist, ignore, or escape the empty reality of a lifeless eternity.

• expresses a cynical, self-centered view of life that sees the only escape from the despair of a lifeless eternity in the physical pleasures of sexual intimacy.

• expresses a cynical view of life through the use of hyperbole, sexual innuendo, and mocking humor.

• criticises social views of propriety and decency and calls for an "honest" acceptance of self-interest and self-actualization.

• argues for the "urgency of living" in the face of life's brevity (another way of stating the carpe diem theme).

• argues against traditional views of immortality in favor of an existential view of immortality.

• reveals a speaker, who, like the serpent in the Garden of Eden, uses partial truths and appeals to vanity in order to tempt the woman.