To His Coy Mistress

by Andrew Marvell

The famous love poem To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Read For School, School, Romance, 17th Century, British Literature

64 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Frequently satirical work of English metaphysical poet Andrew Marvell includes "To His Coy Mistress" and "The Definition of Love," both published posthumously.

A clergyman fathered Andrew Marvell, a parliamentarian. John Donne and George Herbert associated him. He befriended John Milton, a colleague.

The family moved to Hull, where people appointed his father as lecturer at church of Holy Trinity, and where grammar school educated the young Marvell. A secondary school in the city is now named after him.

He most famously composed The Garden , An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland , and the Country House Poem , Upon Appleton House .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_...

Reviews

[Abubakar Mehdi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful piece of poetry. The poet urges his beloved that “life is too short to indulge in listless conversations, earnest requests and shy refusals. Life is just too damn SHORT, so lets just get down to ‘Business’”.

[Soplada · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our Lecturer hasn't shown us nothing but this modest picture about this poem:

and she told us that: " Look! the girl isn't listening to his invitation and she is playing music"

So, she didn't listen to all these invitaions from him.

END!

[Lnaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The grave is a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace."

[lula ★ · Rating 1 out of 5]

A horny creep. Mavell belongs on a list. This was an uncomfortable read about Mavell trying to “persuade” his “coy virgin mistress” (whom he does not have a relationship with whatsoever) to have sex with him when she doesn’t want to. He complains about how things are moving too slowly and how they need to “get down to business”.

I’m not sure how courting worked in 1996 but I doubt this got him laid.

“If we had all the time in the world, your prudishness wouldn't be a problem.” How charming? He then goes on to explain how they don’t have all the time in the world, because they’re mortal humans and they’ll die one day, and of course you can’t have sex when you’re dead, so Mavell is pressuring his virgin situationship to have sex with him now when she doesn’t want to.

Also worth noting, he says her beauty will be lost when she’s older so they should do it now, and also suggests that he doesn’t love her which makes this whole thing even weirder.

[Rachel Aranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite carpe diem and love poem. I've enjoyed reading this poem multiple times and even included it in a paper I wrote about rhetorical figures in action in regards to hyperboles. Definitely a poem that I think everyone would like.

[K.D. Absolutely · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite hard to understand being a old English poem. Written in 17th century in England by Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) I had to Google so I would be able to follow what was going on. The poem is written in iambic tetrameter and rhymes in couplets. The first verse stanza ("Had we but World enough and Time...") is ten couplets long, the second ("But at my back I alwaies hear...") six, and the third ("Now therefore, while the youthful hew...") seven. The logical form of the poem runs: if... but... therefore...

It is about a man telling the girl he refers to a his mistress to requite (return) his love because life is short and the object of his affection (the girl) might later regret not accepting his offer (of love). With theme of carpe diem that actually started with Horace's Odes written in 23 B.C. That long! And yet we still hear it today and very much applies to how we procrastinate and passing up on opportunities that could possibly alter our lives for better.

But imagine proposing to your crush saying that she has to accept your love because you only have limited stay on earth. If the girl does not like you and despite knowing you insist and move forward with your advances through seduction like the poet, she'll probably slap your face.

There are other 7 poems by Marvell included in this small poetry collection but they are not as charming and intriguing as To His Coy Mistress. Again, my two-star rating means "It's okay." I was not able to relate to the poet because I do not have and have no plan to have a mistress. First, because I have no money to finance one and second, I love my wife so much that I cannot betray her trust. Ah, there is still the third reason, my daughter is more intuitive than my wife, when I am coming home late at night (from work usually) she would text me saying "I love you, daddy" and that would make me smile and I know that she is thinking that I have a mistress and that I should be assured that she loves me and so I should not forsake her.

She actually dreamed last year that I have a mistress and she found herself crying when she woke up.

[Shadow · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is my daily mantra.

I'm not much of a poetry kinda girl but this is one of the poems that got me hooked on poetry.

[Khadija · Rating 5 out of 5]

A poem of woo and wits

[Aimee Lowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary in Tweet form:
Time moves so quickly, so lets stop messing about. Lets not waste this opportunity to be together & enjoy each other now while we are young.

I'm not much of a poetry girl but I like this. On the first read I thought it was a love poem, but the more I read it the more I feel it's a lust poem. If he were truly in love wouldn't he be proposing? Maybe he's married already, in that case he's a bit of a scoundrel and doesn't have the best intentions. This is like the 1600s version of a guy in a pub at 3am trying to convince a beautiful girl to go home with him.
If I were to Tweet it another way: Life is short. You're really hot. Lets live in the moment because we don't live forever. Come on love, you know it's the true!

[isabell ☮︎︎ · Rating 1 out of 5]

The audacity of this man I cannot. He rly be complaining about their (nonexistent) relationship and how it is progressing “too slow” when all he wants is to take her virginity. SHE DONT WANT YOU ANDREW MARVELL NO ONE DOES YOU CREEP !!

And also Andrew here would definitely be listening to Andrew Tate

[sam.vvitch · Rating 1 out of 5]

No <3 stop trying to convince coy mistresses to have sex with you ~ would rather worms take my virginity than Andrew Marvell

[Oliver · Rating 2 out of 5]

first performative male

[Vee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the cheekiness of this poem!

[Samira Majd · Rating 4 out of 5]

hahaaayyy! cool! quite persuasive! :D

[John Yelverton · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's an interesting poem to say the least. It's a bit dated, and some of the rhymes could be better. I definitely would never right this to someone I loved.

[Nawara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional ! 😍

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; 

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. 

[edie]

everyone hates this and i really need a new hate read

[Leilani · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice try, Marvell. Unfortunately it comes across as very unsexy.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Jillian · Rating 2 out of 5]

To The Narrator of This Poem

I really doubt this poem got you laid, but nice try. Good luck next time, I guess? Fun poem though.

[ferguson (winston’s version) · Rating 4 out of 5]

oh so they’re horny

[Miles Hupert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both a beautiful poem and one that fascinates me with its contents. Beginning with the latter, this poem serves as the summation of centuries of philosophical and poetic thought, weighing each one's merit against the other to find the most compelling way of dealing with one's love, all framed within a humorously compelling package. He breaks this poem into 3 neatly formed sections, the first an image of how he would spend his life if life were truly infinite. He allows himself to indulge in the image that the Petrarchan model of love pushes forth, in which one shall not need to consummate their love in full because the eternal shine of heaven is waiting for them, in which their love can be infinite. He declares his love for her in the years he won't need to fret about as their loves move towards eternity. A"hundred years should go to praise / thine eyes" and two hundred on each breast. He pokes fun at the lack of care he will need to have, as he can spend thousands of years of time just admiring the one he loves. He writes of the time that will pass as he does this, from Britain's invasion of India, he would be there, from before the biblical flood, and until the end of the world, and the Jews convert to Christianity. He spares no image to display his love to her, and I find that so amusing. However, this is not the case. He begins to explore a second image of love, one that the pagan Romans like Horace began to explore in Carpe Diem. But in that again, he finds no dice, love is not that perfect, and death, even shared, is not perpetual love. Death is of the world, it is of the earth, this is the image that Marvell points himself and the audience to, and it is one I find especially charming in however grim one may see it as. His final fight is one similarly shared by Romeo, who in the final act of the play, destines himself to die in the same place as Juliet so their death will be shared. He in the fight against the original play that Shakespeare copied (adapted, whatever you may call it) will not die and be found in the ninth circle of heaven; he will be right there, on earth. Marvell knows this, he does not see death as a continuation of love, nor is it as beautiful as many before him would paint it to be. Death is singular, and through this central belief, he asserts his own beliefs on the finite nature of love, that through this singular idea we must begin to love now, instead of allowing "time's winged chariot" to race after him they will instead race after it. I find it so lovely in every way, and I haven't even touched the usage of the decaying body that he uses in the third stanza... I find this poem everything that I want in love poetry, and in my own intellectual pursuit of the concepts I would eventually like to publish about (if I ever do in my future life) this poem would be a central point in its contents.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This piece has been accurately pronounced as a magnum opus of metaphysical love-poetry. Marvell, the last grand poet of metaphysical school was the lone Puritan among the metaphysicals. He was no acerbic Puritan, devoid of the jovial and mirth-loving fortitude, nevertheless. He was a passionate humanist -- sharp, with a genial, imperative quality, full of vigorous gusto in life and nature.

The poem is based on the conventional premise of Carpe diem "the belief in the virtue of enjoying oneself while one is still young". Marvell's treatment of the theme, nonetheless, is fresh and original. It is "the alliance of levity and seriousness", as Eliot has pointed out, that makes the poem characteristic of the intellect of Marvell.

The poem commences in a restful and it sounds as if in an almost digressive manner dealing with the theme of time and space in a vein which is at once sharp and ingenious.

The profusion of inspired hyperboles in the opening section seems to manufacture almost a slapstick effect. However, the poet's thought is justified in its seeming profligacy, by the passion and accord with which he invests his picture. The tone abruptly changes in the second section where the poet concentrates the thoughts on death, into a single and vivid image 'deserts of vast eternity'.

The despondency and repulsion of death are expressed in the epigrammatic lines of the second section.

In the concluding section, time and death, the common theme of Elizabethan and seventeenth century love lyrics, are conquered by love and the climax of the poem in the concluding couplet is a triumph of restrained thought and expression.

Thus, the progression of ideas shows an artist at work. The poem is shot with passion, strange and sensuous.

The verses, running effortlessly and cordially sets the poem up as a superior paradigm of metaphysical wittiness in which thought and feeling are concurrently experienced.

This poem is a seduction poem: a very popular genus in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the spirit of it is excellently summed up in two simple lines by Carew: 'O love me then and now begin it. Let us not lose the present minute.'

The Title (Coy - modest, shy) is used here in a precise sense to mean one who is not responsive to the love-overtures of the lover.


The poem occurs in Marvell's Miscellaneous Poems, a collection of verses, published in 1681, three years after his death. It is a poem inspired by love and rightly takes its place among the love-lyrics of the age, which were as abundant as the Elizabethan lyrics.

[Naila Yasser · Rating 5 out of 5]

The poem can be divided into three parts, named as
Part I: we can call it (what if ? ) What if we had World and Time.¿ Here Marvell depicts the ideal, the Utopian life, the metaphysical world.

Part II: we can call it (reality), Marvell leaves the metaphysical world. Reality strikes him.

Part III: We can call it (mortality), Marvell explores the world of human, he assures that death is behind us. Therefore, he wanted to “seize the day”. and defeat Time through “roll[ing] all our strength and all/ Our sweetness up into one ball”.

[Amelia Bujar · Rating 3 out of 5]

FULL REVIEW ON MY WEBSITE
https://thebookcornerchronicles.com/2...

The plot in this one was kind of disappointing because it had the potential to be much better than it actually was. However the plot was okay but nothing too good nor too bad.

I liked the idea behind the plot which is why I’m giving this poem extra points for that.

The write style was probably the best thing in this whole poem because it did really shine and I love that.

[Andy Hickman · Rating 4 out of 5]

'To His Coy Mistress' opens with:
"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."
Continues with:
"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."
And concludes with:
"Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run."

[S · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Sreena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah, the classic tale of a hesitant lover, struggling to coax a reluctant paramour out of her shell. But let me tell you, this is no ordinary love poem. No, dear all, this is a sizzling seductive symphony that will make your heart race faster than an Olympic sprinter!(I wish I could tell that, but of course a one time good read)

[Hilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andrew Marvell wrote this humorous and ironic poem to convince his lover to sleep with him. He does this with several arguments, because: 'If only we had world enough and time...'

A beautiful piece of English literature with a clear message; life is short and if you don't enjoy it now it's too late.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This poem can be really interesting to analyze. However, there are many different layers to the poem besides simply seduction. Time alone is a significant theme in this poem and is represented with many different images.