Analysis of To His Coy Mistress
Andrew Marvell 1621 (Winestead) – 1678 (London)
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 Loves Day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges side.
Should'st 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 then 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 alwaies hear
Times winged Charriot hurrying near:
And yonder all before us lye
Desarts of vast Eternity.
Thy Beauty shall no more be found;
Nor, in thy marble Vault, shall sound
My ecchoing Song: then Worms shall try
That long preserv'd Virginity:
And your quaint Honour turn to durst;
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 hew
Sits on thy skin like morning glew,
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-chapt pow'r.
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.
Scheme | AABBCCDEFFGGHHIIJJKKLMNOPPNOQRSSTTUUBBVWXXYYZZ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110101 1110011 11110111 110110111 110100101 111011101 11010111 11110101 01111101 10010101 1100111 11100011 11011111 11011101 11010111 11010101 111111001 00111111 11010111 11111101 1111111 1111001 01010111 1110100 11011111 10110111 1111111 11010100 0111111 00110111 01010101 11111101 1110101 11111101 011101010 1100111010 11111111 0111111 1011101010 110011111 111110101 101010111 011010111 10010111 111101101 11111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,574 |
Words | 303 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 46 |
Lines Amount | 46 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,257 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 301 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 17, 2023
- 1:32 min read
- 264 Views
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"To His Coy Mistress" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 16 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/2905/to-his-coy-mistress>.
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