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.
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From guest Sarah Khayal (contact)
Today we are in front of a new poem for another different metaphysical poet, who is Andrew Marvel, and the poem is called" To His Coy Mistress". First of all, when I read the title of the poem, I guessed that the speaker is a man adressing a female...and owing "due to" Marvell's use of the word "coy", I drew a picture in my mind of the kind of women his mistress is . From reading only the first stanza, i knew that this poem is about love. The poem does not tell about the setting. But I assumed that it was in a bar, because of the way he talked to her and that's where most guys go to pick up a girl for the evening. Actually, when I finished reading the poem, i got shocked of its subject matter, and of Marvell's own usage of words and images, especially, the image when he said that he will spend two hundred years for each breast, and the image which describes the girl in her tomb with worms benetrating her body and taking out her virginity without any kind of resistence from her. I personally feel that the speaker does not have any sort of respect for women, he is just sort of men who want to satisfy their desires as quickly as possible . I think that Marvell in this poem is trying to say to his girlfriend that either she has sex with him or she dies. I don't know what happened at the end of this poem. I think Marvell leaves it to us to decide . I can say that the guy probably got slapped pretty hard. -
this is and always will be my favorite
i just had my english lit exam and i had to compare "The Flea" by John Donne to a poem similar in style- well my entire class guessed what i compared it too- honestly no matter what the question i would have been able to relate it back to this poem. i absultly love it.
"my vegitable love shall grow" <-- what a fantastic line.
it's doubtfull that he would have actually been attempting to suduce his misteress when he wrote this. Its far more likly that his target audiance was other members of parliment and gentry to whome this would have proved his wit.
I loved the imagrey in this poem, and the sexual metaphores are trully outstanding- seriously im not joking when i say that "vegitable love" has become a form of playground slag amoungst me friends and I.
i loved the 3 main arguments in this
first your classical admiration, "two hundred to adore each brest" telling her how beautiful she is.
followed by the subtle threat of her dying alone with the morbid imagery of "then worms shall try that long preserved virginity" a horrid image in itself followed up by reminding her that she would have dies without ever feeling loves embrace.
next he moves onto a lustfull energetic exilerating stanza showing her what sex with him could be like.
this poem trully is a masterpeice- in that fact i have no doubt.
lastly what is often missed is the wonderful satirical aspect of this poem. i honestly can find no fault in it. SUPERB -
Nothing to Add
He's in love with her and wants to have sex, she's a little shy and wants to keep her virginity. But then I think he talks it out of her. -
Superb!
This is a playful dialog regarding the time, lust, love and the coy atmosphere affected by women of Marvell's time.
Filled with double entrendres, this magical romp essentially says, "Time is fleeting, let's get cozy." GRIN.
He first declares his love in classic form, yet constantly referring to time passing and in the later lines, segues into true ribald references of the flesh.
My favorite lines to take away from this piece are:
"The Grave's a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace."
And that sums it up in a nutshell.
This is one of my favorite pieces. Marvell was surely a master of the poetic word.
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cazzoII
la figa è la cosa più bella del mondo... inglesi e americani sono degli stronzi di destra che credono di fare i carini mentre invece sono deigrandi figli di troua... do you understand? noooooooo meio -
cazzo
è una immensa cazzata... dagliela e falla finita.... -
Ah, this poem. I have heard it described as a wonderful "love" poem before, by someone who obviously did not take the time to understand it. This poem is witty and enjoyable and even romantic, despite its subtle innuendos and eroticism. It always makes me laugh to read it.
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Always a pleasure to read.
A gorgeous, erotic, playful verse. I think the lady in question knew exactly what he was playing at was enjoying being chased ....right until she let him catch her! -
This is one of the few things that I read in english that actually cought my attention. It is about a man try to get this woman to have sex with him by saying that if we dont do it now then the only thing taking your verginity will be the worms when you are dead. But in anycase I enjoyed this one because you have to give him some credit I mean that is somthing that may work because the thought of losing your verginity to a worm is rather unsettleing and he played that to his advangage. Man my english teacher would have a heart attack if she knew that I actually payed attention for one day in her class.
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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:
I absolutely enjoy this poem muchly. I had to read it in my English class last year and I fell in love with it right from the start. The imagery and metaphors and just everything is so totally awesome. The sexual innuedos that are implied in here are just so subtle that it makes me laugh. I have to say that it also should have been seperated into three stanzas, as it is writen as a beginning, middle and an end... they all go together perfectly; just seperated to show the reader what's going on...
Keep up the good fight, it's all we have left...
The Rev -
I remember reading this in school and being completely awed by the use of language in it. It's something that is lost in poetry today and i'm glad to see this up for viewing so that people can start to see all the things that can be done with poetry.
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don't touch it!
This poem is about a man wanting to take away the innocence of the one woman that he's supposedly loves. He wants not only a verbal relationship but a intimate one as well. He's saying that time isn't standing still for them. She and he have to enjoy life now while they can. -
i love the direct reference to carpe diem
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Nooooo! He never offers her all the time in the world, he starts by saying 'Had we but...' meaning 'If we only had...' That's his whole point: life, youth, and beauty are short. We don't have forever, so we have to love NOW. And I think he does show her respect in one way. He treats her as an equal when he compares them both to birds of prey. He's not the predator and she the harmless prey. They are both 'predators,' feeding on each others passion. That's pretty egalitarian for a 17th century poet. (And British, not American as the category suggests)
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The speaker starts out as a nice man who wahts to take all the time in the world to be with his love, then he turns into this coward who just wants to satisfy his desires as quickly as possible. The speaker has no respect for women.
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