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 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 Jews.

My vegetable love should grow

Vaster that 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 deserves this state,

Nor would I love at lower rate.

But at my back I always hear

Time's wingèd 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-preserved virginity,

And your quaint honor turn to dust,

And into ashes all my lust:

The grave's a find 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,

A d now, like amorous birds of prey,

Rathe at once our time devour

Than languish in his slow-chapped 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.

One thing that I liked about this poem was the use of different poetic devices in the poem. There were two main poetic devices that were used, metaphors and metonymies.

One thing that I disliked about this poem was the length of it. The longer poems are to be, the more it seems to confuse me and have me not know what is going on during it.

One thing that confused me about this poem was the actual meaning of it. I couldn't exactly tell what the poem was truly about and what the author was trying to say in the text.

The poetic device used in this poem that I found interesting was, the use of a metonymy. A metonymy is the use of something closely related for the thing actually meant. An example of a metonymy used in this poem is the line in which they say, 'Deserts of vast eternity.'