Theme and Summary

“To His Coy Mistress” presents a familiar theme in literature—carpe diem (meaning seize the
day), a term coined by the ancient Roman poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus, known as Horace (65-8
B.C.). Here is the gist of Andrew Marvell's poem: In response to a young man’s declarations of
love for a young lady, the lady is playfully hesitant, artfully demure. But dallying will not do, he
says, for youth passes swiftly. He and the lady must take advantage of the moment, he says, and
“sport us while we may.” Oh, yes, if they had “world enough, and time” they would spend their
days in idle pursuits, leisurely passing time while the young man heaps praises on the young
lady. But they do not have the luxury of time, he says, for “time's wingéd chariot” is ever racing
along. Before they know it, their youth will be gone; there will be only the grave. And so, the poet
pleads his case: Seize the day.

The Title
The title suggests that the author looked over the shoulder of a young man as he wrote a plea to
a young lady and that the author then reported the plea exactly as the young man expressed it.
However, the author added the title, using the third-person possessive pronoun "his" to refer to
the young man. The word "coy" tells the reader that the lady is no easy catch; the word "mistress"
can mean lady, manager, caretaker, courtesan, sweetheart, and lover. It can also serve as the
female equivalent of master. In "To His Coy Mistress," the word appears to be a synonym for lady
or sweetheart. In reality, of course, Marvell wrote the entire poem.

The Persona (The Young Man)

Although Andrew Marvell writes "To His Coy Mistress" in first-person point of view, he presents
the poem as the plea of another man (fictional, of course). The poet enters the mind of the man
and reports his thoughts as they manifest themselves. The young man is impatient, desperately
so, unwilling to tolerate temporizing on the part of the young lady. His motivation appears to be
carnal desire rather than true love; passion rules him. Consequently, one may describe him as
immature and selfish.

"To His Coy Mistress" as a Metaphysical Poem

"To His Coy Mistress," acclaimed long after Marvell's death a masterly work, is a lyrical poem that
scholars also classify as a metaphysical poem. Metaphysical poetry, pioneered by John Donne,
tends to focus on the following:

 Startling comparisons or contrasts of a metaphysical (spiritual, transcendent, abstract)

quality to a concrete (physical, tangible, sensible) object. In "To His Coy Mistress," for
example, Marvell compares love to a vegetable (Line 11) in a waggish metaphor.
 Mockery of idealized romantic poetry through crude or shocking imagery, as in Lines 27
and 28 ("then worms shall try / That long preserved virginity').
 Gross exaggeration (hyperbole), as in Line 15 ("two hundred [years] to adore each
breast].
 Expression of personal, private feelings, such as those the young man expresses in "To
His Coy Mistress."
 Presentation of a logical argument, or syllogism. In "To His Coy Mistress," this argument
may be outlined as follows: (1) We could spend decades or even centuries in courtship if
time stood still and we remained young. But time passes swiftly and
 relentlessly.Therefore, we must enjoy the pleasure of each other now, without further
ado.The conclusion of the argument begins at Line 33 with "Now therefore."

Meter and Rhyme

The poem is in iambic tetrameter, with eight syllables (four feet) per line. Each foot consists of an
unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The last syllable of Line 1 rhymes with the
last syllable of Line 2, the last syllable of Line 3 rhymes with the last syllable of Line 4, the last
syllable of Line 5 rhymes with the last syllable of Line 6, and so on. Such pairs of rhyming lines
are called couplets. The following two lines, which open the poem, exhibit the meter and rhyme
prevailing in most of the other couplets in the poem:
......1.................2................3..............4
Had WE |but WORLD| e NOUGH |and TIME
......1.......... ..2......... ....3...............4
ThisCOY |ness LA| dyWERE |no CRIME

Setting
The poem does not present a scene in a specific place in which people interact. However, the
young man and the young lady presumably live somewhere in England (the native land of the
author), perhaps in northeastern England near the River Humber. The poet mentions the Humber
in Line 7.

Characters

Young Man: He pleads with a young lady to stop playing hard to get and accept his love.
Young Lady: A coquettish woman.

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 the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than 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 always hear

Time's winged 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 preserv'd virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
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 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;
And now, like am'rous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour,
Than languish in his slow-chapp'd 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.