To His Coy Mistress
by 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 wingèd 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.
A.Marvell is the poet who best embodies the typical characteristics of the Puritan Age: the unity of
thought and feeling; the cohexistence of high rhetoric with wit, of seriousness with lightness, of
political commitment and personal serenity. Though a puritan, his poetry was marked by sensuality
and passion for life as well as by a flexible style and a complex language.
Comprehension
The poem can be divided into three parts:
1.
Had we ….
2.
But at my back …
3.
Now therefore …
Explain the poet’s argument in three short paragraphs.
Sound Patterns
Identify the rhyme scheme of the poem and count the syllables in each line. What kind of line does
Marvell use?
Find example of run-on-lines. How do they affect the rhythm and tone of the poem?
Language and Meaning
Find references to time and space in ll1-20. What do they suggest?
The poet lists his mistress’s charms. Do they convey a spiritual or physical idea of love?
Analyse the images connected with death. What aspect of death is being described?
Focus on the verbs used in ll. 33-46. Are they static or dynamic? What idea do they convey?
Say how the last part contrasts with the previous two.
Marvell uses the typical metaphysical devices: paradox, hyperbole and conceit (unexpected
comparison). Find one example of each.
Consider the last couplet. Think of what is the sun usually associated with and say what it suggests
here.
What may Marvell have meant with “we will make him run”?
How would you describe the tone and style of the poem? Choose from the alternatives below and
say if they apply to different parts of the poem.
witty urgent optimistic pessimistic energetic desperate seductive sensual crude vulgar serious
intellectual elegant eloquent threatening
The theme of the poem is the traditional motif “seize the day” or “carpe diem” of which Horace was
the classical model. Marvell’s originality lies in teh coexistence of sensuality and passion with
seriousness and sadness.
Time and death are the themes of much of Elizabethan and 17th century poetry. What can conquer
them according to Shakespeare, Donne and Marvell?
Marvell x me
Marvell is the poet who best embodiesthe typical charactgeristics of the Puritan Age: the unity of
thought and feeling; the cohexistence of high rhetoric with wit, of seriousness with lightness, of
political commitment and personal serenity. Though a puritan, his poetry was marked by sensuality
and passion for life as well as by a flexible style and a complex language.