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 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.

 
Marvell
To His Coy Mistress
it's an address to someone shy, hesitant to get into the world of love
he's giving 3 arguments 2 encourage her to return his love now before time destroys him

the 1st argument is hypothetical / suppositional:
conditional sentence [the hypothetical section / unreal]
if human's life can last for 1000 years, he'd love her from the beginning till the judjement day, and this mean that life is short
if had time and space, if the barriers of time and space were removed, then he wouldn't mind her coyness a crime
he was apocalyptic poet [judjement is very soon]

if life is eternal and won't be destroyed soon, I won't consider it a crime, but the truth is that it's short and would be destroyed, this sayed indirectly, so hesitation is a crime against the lover and her

he carries on his supposition till the end of this stanza
so life would be so long and so boring, we'd sit down and think [in passive], he wouldn't be in a hurry, 'cuz it'd b so long, we'd be relaxing, he wouldn't know what to do

he'd allow her to go off India, and look for gemstones rubies to adorn herself with,she could find them easily 'cuz she has time and he'd b patiently waiting for her comming back at England,
he'd love her ten years before the Flood [antediluvian date]
and of course u could refuse my love [not return] untill the convertion of jews to christianity [just couple of days before the judjement], before the judjement, he wants her to return his love

vegetable love
he's making a comparison between love and veg, his love would grow like vegetables,slowly, unnoticably but non-stop, they may cover the whole world, impersebtibly, if they wouldn't stop growing, they'd grow larger than empires, and also does his love
also it may refer to the vegetable soul, as for greeks, it's the animal rational soul, his sexual love

he'd praise and love his beloved eyes for 100 years, 200 years to adore each breast, but 30000 years for the rest of her body, more years are given as he goes on, he'd also devote an age to every part of her body, to worship her, and in the last age, reveal ur heart and return my love

my lady u deserve this state, if u were that important I wouldn't have loved u




in the 2nd argument, the tone is different, human's life has another architexture, we don't have enough time
hurrying=2 syllables to show that time is so fast
time's winged charriot refers to Appolo who carries the sun from east to west using his charriot, you can feel that time is passing so quickly but u can't see that, you'll suddenly find urself in the grave

in front of us there's only death deserts
desert = symbolizes death, it's eternal, no returning from death
so ur beauty won't be found anymore
while ur in ur grave u won't be able to hear my song, u'll b alone isolated, u'll hear only ur own voice [it's marble vault]
he imagines that in grave, ur soul will b imprisoned, u'll c ur decayed body but u won't b able to do anything to it.
he wants to scare and frighten her from the idea death, the images are so strong and appoling
in the grave, worms will eat ur body, and destoryed ur long kept virginity, worm will take revenge on u
and ur weird / strange honor will die also with,
and also his sexual desires will also trun to dust [ashes], after death there's nothing, death is eternal, so enjoy ur love now [carpediem concept of love] seize the day and enjoy it

if ur realy looking for privacy, relax from the noise of life, grave suits ur needs, but there u'll b alone, people don't embrace each other, u'll b barried by ur own, alone

in the first stanza, he's shown her how he loves her, he showed her his loyalty to her, to show how valuable she's for him, all this time he won't change his love to her
then he scares and frighten her of the shortness of time



in the 3rd argument, there's an urgency, he starts with therefore, as a result of ...
now when beauty sits on ur skin, it's temporary, it won't last forever
while ur young and beautiful, but it's like the morning dew, it won't last for a long time
and also ur shining body, refering to her cycology, she's mature and ready for love

so let's enjoy the pleasures of love now, before u lose ur vitality and energy, now ur young, let's behave like birds of prey, like two amorous birds, let's devour time [eat up] by making love, having union
let's hunt time b4 it hunts us, the only means to defy time is ur return and us having children, let's unite sweetness and strength, masculine strength and feminine
let's snatch our pleasures with hard work from the teeth of time
there's no afterlife, no paradise or heaven, this is our world,
since we can't stop or delay time aging death from coming, there's some kinda race between human kind and the sun