Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)
To his Coy Mistress
1Had we but world enough, and time,
2This coyness, lady, were no crime.
3We would sit down and think which way
4To walk, and pass our long love's day;
5Thou by the Indian Ganges' side
6Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
7Of Humber would complain. I would
8Love you ten years before the Flood;
9And you should, if you please, refuse
10Till the conversion of the Jews.
11My vegetable love should grow
12Vaster than empires, and more slow.
13An hundred years should go to praise
14Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
15Two hundred to adore each breast,
16But thirty thousand to the rest;
17An age at least to every part,
18And the last age should show your heart.
19For, lady, you deserve this state,
20Nor would I love at lower rate.
21 But at my back I always hear
22Time's winged chariot hurrying near;
23And yonder all before us lie
24Deserts of vast eternity.
25Thy beauty shall no more be found,
26Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
27My echoing song; then worms shall try
28That long preserv'd virginity,
29And your quaint honour turn to dust,
30And into ashes all my lust.
31The grave's a fine and private place,
32But none I think do there embrace.
33 Now therefore, while the youthful hue
34Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
35And while thy willing soul transpires
36At every pore with instant fires,
37Now let us sport us while we may;
38And now, like am'rous birds of prey,
39Rather at once our time devour,
40Than languish in his slow-chapp'd power.
41Let us roll all our strength, and all
42Our sweetness, up into one ball;
43And tear our pleasures with rough strife
44Thorough the iron gates of life.
45Thus, though we cannot make our sun
46Stand still, yet we will make him run.
Notes
7] Humber: Hull, where Marvell lived as a boy, and which he represented as an M.P. for nearly twenty years from 1659, is on the river Humber.
10] The conversion of the Jews was to take place just before the end of the world.
11] vegetable love: that of his "vegetable" soul.
29] quaint: elegant, artificial.
34] dew. The original reading is "glew," which has been justified as meaning "glow."
36] instant: immediate and urgent.
40] slow-chapp'd: i.e., with slow-devouring jaws.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: Andrew Marvell, Miscellaneous Poems, ed. Mary Marvell (1681). Facs. edn.: Scolar Press, 1969. PR 3546 A1 1681A ROBA.
First publication date:
1681
RPO poem editor: N. J. Endicott
RP edition: 3RP 1.350-51.
Recent editing: 4:2002/2/23
Form: Short Couplets
Other poems by Andrew Marvell
