To His Coy Mistress
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 Gange’s side
Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide
Of Humber1 would complain2 I would
Love you ten years before the flood3,
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversation of the Jews4,
My vegetable5 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 state6;
Nor would I love at lower rate.
But at my back I always hear
Time’s winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder al 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 try7
That long preserved virginity;
And your quaint honor 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 transpires8
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-chapped9 power,
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough10 the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
1 Humber: a river in Marvell’s home town.
2 complain: sing plaintive long songs.
3 flood: the Biblical flood.
4 conversation…Jews: It was believed that this would occur just before the Last Judgment and the end of the world.
5 vegetable: in the sense of living growth.
6 state: dignity.
7 try: test.
8 transpires: breathes.
9 slow-chapped: slow-jawed.
10 Thorough: through.
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Poetry
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