To His Coy Mistress

Marvell’s metaphysical poem has 46 lines. Each line is written in iambic tetrameter: four stressed syllables and four unstressed syllables. Marvell presents 23 pairs of rhyming couplets in three sections: Lines 1, 21, and 33 are indented, marking the sections. “To His Coy Mistress,” as a carpe diem poem, seduces the speaker’s beloved to romantically seize the day together.

Section One (Lines 1-20)

In the first seven lines, the speaker creates an imaginary scenario of what love could look like without the constraints of time and geography. He (the “I” of the poem) articulates this hypothetical situation in the most famous line of this poem, Line 1: “Had we but world enough, and time.” This limitless situation allows time for the “lady” (Line 2) to play hard to get—to be coy. The unhurried lovers can dawdle and go for long, separate walks on riverbanks. After spurning the speaker, his mistress would look for rubies by the Ganges. The speaker would pine for her beside “Humber” (Line 7), a river located in Marvell’s hometown, indicating the author is (quite likely) the speaker.

At the end of Line 7, the speaker focuses on the declarations of love and beauty he would make in the imaginary space. Biblical events, like the Flood and the Last Judgment, mark the length of his love; the theme of time is developed by the Christian conception of chronology and calendars. Furthermore, his love physically and chronologically expands: It is “vaster than empires” (Line 12), connecting back to the geographic elements of the two rivers and England’s colonial connection to India.

In the rest of this section, Marvell uses a poetic device from medieval romance called the blazon: a flattering catalogue of a woman’s features. The head-to-toe list ascribes a length of time for praising each body part; the omission of specific descriptions makes the list applicable to a variety of women. For instance, Marvell says he will take “Two hundred [years] to adore each breast” (Line 15), but does not offer specifics about said breast. By putting the woman’s “heart” (Line 18) at the end of the list, Marvell emphasizes her internal qualities over the (omitted) physical details. The speaker concludes by asserting that his lady “deserves” (Line 19) to be praised for ages.

Section Two (Lines 21-32)

This section marks a turn (sometimes called a volta) in the poem: Marvell moves from the imaginary play-space where the lovers are immortal to a reality where death pursues them. Time approaches in a “winged chariot” (Line 22), coming up behind the speaker. His concern about the “deserts of vast eternity” (Line 24) that lie before them leads to a trope called memento mori, or reminders of mortality. Images like the “marble vault” (Line 26) are meant to persuade the coy mistress to act before death steals her beauty.

When the speaker elaborates on the imagery of the grave, his focus becomes the woman’s corpse. If a woman dies before having sex, she loses the choice in who—or what—is able to enter her physical body; mere worms “shall try / That long-preserved virginity” (Lines 27-28). Death destroys her “quaint honor” (Line 29) alongside the speaker’s “lust” (Line 30). Not only does the physical body decay, but these immaterial concepts and feelings become “dust” (Line 29) and “ashes” (Line 30). The rhyme of lust/dust emphasizes the connection between the tangible and intangible. The speaker, like many who use the trope of memento mori, exhibits some death-positivity: The grave is “a fine and private place” (Line 31). However, it is absent of physical affection, or “embrace” (Line 32).

Section Three (Lines 33-46)

In the final section of the poem, the speaker concludes his argument in favor of giving into romantic—and physical—love. He connects youth with “morning dew” (Line 34): Both fade; both are transient. This dewy, moist imagery moves to the lady’s “willing soul” (Line 35) marking out its limited days in her “pore[s] with instant fires” (Line 36). This is consensual ignition: The passion sparks because of the combination of skin in conjunction with internal, divine qualities. Here, Marvell draws from the medieval romance trope of making love a religion. These lines describe a secular kind of worship.

The speaker believes that primal, lustful games are the way to defeat time. He argues that they should “sport” (Line 37) like “amorous birds of prey” (Line 38). This animal-based simile for sex emphasizes how it is natural, as opposed to an unnatural “embrace” (Line 32) in the “private” (Line 31) space of the grave. They can “devour” (Line 39) time through animal passion, rather than waiting to be “slow-chapped” (Line 40), or slowly chewed by time. Their gluttonous act combats time’s power, which is measured in ages.

The next two couplets (four lines) describe how the couple’s excess can be gathered to change the power structure of time. They “roll all”—“strength and all” (Line 41) “sweetness” (Line 42) together to form a “ball” (Line 42). Marvell’s repetition of “all,” and the echo of it in his rhyme scheme, emphasize concentration and centralization: The mixture of dualities (strong and sweet) in excess (all, not some) gives them power. The paradoxes continue with “tear our pleasures with rough strife” (Line 43). They move through the “iron gates of life” (Line 44) by accepting their joyful, lustful actions will be accompanied by negative experiences--or perhaps even some social consequences.

The final couplet admits that the couple cannot stop time, but they can defy it. The “sun” (Line 45) will continue to move, to rise and set, no matter what they do. However, if they seize the day, and each other, they can make time “run” (Line 46) after them. Rather than the speaker chasing the coy woman, time chases the empowered, lustful couple.