In "To his Coy Mistress"

Question

What kinds of things does Marvel say he would do if they had "world enough and time"?

WHat is meant by the last tow lines of the poem?

How does he imagine death in lines 25-32?

Answer 1

You will find very good resources on Marvell here:

http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/marve...

And it will be a fantastic opportunity for you to read the poem yourself.

Answer 2

You can find information on Marvell, his work in general, and that poem specifically at poets.org, the web site of the American Academy of Poets

Answer 3

- To sit down and think which way to walk and spend the day with his beloved.

- To love her ten years before the Flood.

- To grow his love vaster and slower than empires.

- To praise her eyes and to gaze at her forehead for a hundred years.

- To adore her breast for two hundred years.

- To rest for thirty thousand years.



His very down-to-earth idea of death ( lines 25-32):

He won't be able to find her beauty anymore, not in a marble vaunt, where his song shall echo. Worms will try her long preserved virginity and all his lust will turn into dust.

When one dies, it is over. One's body is just eaten by worms and the remains turn into dust.

Last lines of the poem:

"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."

He is telling his beloved life doesn't wait. If they don't live it now, time will be waisted.

The whole poem means to tell the beloved not to keep her virginity and indulge herself in the pleasures of flesh while they still have it. There is no sense in waiting because life is too short.

The poem starts with him telling her what they woul do IF time was infinitite. Then he says it is not. Hence, the description of his idea of death. He concludes telling her to enjoy herself while she can.