To+His+Coy+Mistress

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**To His Coy Mistress**Andrew MarvellCommentary and Analysis by Erin Eller

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, <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">But thirty thousand to the rest; <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">An age at least to every part, <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">And the last age should show your heart. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">For, lady, you deserve this state,

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Nor would I love at lower rate.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">But at my back I always hear <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near; <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">And yonder all before us lie <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Deserts of vast eternity. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Thy beauty shall no more be found; <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">My echoing song; then worms shall try <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">That long-preserved virginity, <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">And your quaint honour turn to dust,

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">And into ashes all my lust; <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">The grave’s a fine and private place, <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">But none, I think, do there embrace.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Now therefore, while the youthful hue <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Sits on thy skin like morning dew, <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">And while thy willing soul transpires <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">At every pore with instant fires, <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Now let us sport us while we may, <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">And now, like amorous birds of prey, <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Rather at once our time devour <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Than languish in his slow-chapped power. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Let us roll all our strength and all <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Our sweetness up into one ball, <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">And tear our pleasures with rough strife <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Thorough the iron gates of life: <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Thus, though we cannot make our sun <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Stand still, yet we will make him run.



<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: start;">Overview: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">"To His Coy Mistress" is a metaphysical poem in which the speaker attempts to persuade his resistant lover that they should have sexual intercourse. He explains that if they had all the time in the world, he would have no problem with their relationship moving this slowly. However, he goes on to explain, they are mortal, and once they die they will be unable to be intimate together. The poem appears to serve dual purposes: first, to persuade the mistress to love, and second, to comment on mortality in its inevitability and grotesqueness. It is the latter objective which adds the philosophical aspect to this love poem. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">This poem is admired for its metaphysical imagery. Metaphysical poetry was primarily known for the use of extended metaphor and conceit, as well as unlikely comparisons between abstract and worldly ideas. The term "metaphysical" was applied to a small group of 17th century poets, Marvell among them. The poems tended to have some philosophical bases, and this combined with experimental stylistic aspects helped to characterize them as metaphysical. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">"To His Coy Mistress" is written in iambic tetrameter, and rhymes in couplets (AA, BB, CC, DD, and so on). It has been recognized as one of his most famous poems, and there is speculation as to whether or not 20th century Modernist poet T.S. Eliot was responding to Marvell in his famous poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Clearly, Marvell's work has continued to have an impact on literature, especially posthumously. <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Citations??

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Sources:

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Jokinen, Anniina. "Metaphysical Poets." http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/metaintro.htm <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The Poetry Foundation. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173954 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The Poetry Foundation. "Andrew Marvell." http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/andrew-marvell <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">"To His Coy Mistress." Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_His_Coy_Mistress

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Image Sources:

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Manuscript of Marvell’s ‘To His Coy Mistress’, The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, MS Don. b.8,pp.283 and 284 (the Haward Manuscript), in The Poems of Andrew Marvell, by Andrew Marvell. 2003. Rev. Ed. Ed. Nigel Smith.Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2007. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Wall, Josephine. "Doorway to the Stars." http://www.josephinewall.co.uk/doorway.html