This poem is addressed from the speaker to his coy mistress. In the first stanza, he says that if they had endless time, her coyness would not be a crime as they could spend centuries expressing their love for one another through elaborate acts of affection and praise. However, in the second stanza, he notes that time marches quickly towards their deaths, so they must seize the moment while she is still youthful to "sport" and "devour their time" passionately rather than "languish" as time slowly claims them.
This poem is addressed from the speaker to his coy mistress. In the first stanza, he says that if they had endless time, her coyness would not be a crime as they could spend centuries expressing their love for one another through elaborate acts of affection and praise. However, in the second stanza, he notes that time marches quickly towards their deaths, so they must seize the moment while she is still youthful to "sport" and "devour their time" passionately rather than "languish" as time slowly claims them.
This poem is addressed from the speaker to his coy mistress. In the first stanza, he says that if they had endless time, her coyness would not be a crime as they could spend centuries expressing their love for one another through elaborate acts of affection and praise. However, in the second stanza, he notes that time marches quickly towards their deaths, so they must seize the moment while she is still youthful to "sport" and "devour their time" passionately rather than "languish" as time slowly claims them.
This poem is addressed from the speaker to his coy mistress. In the first stanza, he says that if they had endless time, her coyness would not be a crime as they could spend centuries expressing their love for one another through elaborate acts of affection and praise. However, in the second stanza, he notes that time marches quickly towards their deaths, so they must seize the moment while she is still youthful to "sport" and "devour their time" passionately rather than "languish" as time slowly claims them.
357. To His Coy Mistress. Andrew Marvell. The Oxford Book of English Verse
Select Search
Verse > Anthologies > Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. > The Oxford Book of English Verse PREVIOUS
NEXT CONTENTS
BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 12501900.
Andrew Marvell. 16211678
357. 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 wingd 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 http://www.bartleby.com/101/357.html
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
1/2
10/13/2014
357. To His Coy Mistress. Andrew Marvell. The Oxford Book of English Verse
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. GLOSS:
