Poetry Explication: To His Coy Mistress

Andrew Marvell addresses his lover in an argument that is dissected into three stanzas, the first speaking in a sweet, positive, and somewhat hypothetical tone. The second stanza contrasts the relaxed imagery of the first by insinuating an urgency, and the previous positive tone is quickly reverted to one that is miserable. The third stanza concludes with a proposal of a dismal sort, that he and his lover should, instead of basking in time's love, race through time to avoid the consequences of ages: they should "Rather at once our time devour" (39).

In the first stanza, Marvell marvels at how he would love without the bonds of time. To express the infinity of time and the irrelevance of time should he allow his love to drawl, Marvell alludes to biblical stories in referencing "the conversion of the Jews" and "the Flood". He also terms his love as "vegetable," a thing which grows slowly and becomes a round, wholesome food and which requires time and nourrishment. He references empires, which develop over a period of time to become masterful. All this is to emphasize the slow and meticulous "rate" at which the author would love his lover, for it is what he believes she deserves.

The second stanza is a stark contrast to the first. It moves with speed; time's chariot hurries, and eternity is metaphorically linked with deserts, vast and empty. Deserts, here, also contrast the "Flood" imagery of the previous stanza. His diction alludes to a cemetery in this stanza: worms, vaults, graves, and dust all appear in the phrases. The contrast serves to illuminate the urgency which the author feels, pressed by time, that he cannot and therefore should not take his time loving, particularly when the result is represented in the imagery of dark, dust, and crawling worms.

Finally, the third stanza brings about Marvell's concluding proposition to his mistress. The imagery is less dark, indeed, but it maintains the same sense of urgency. Though there is a "youthful hue" in the skin, and fire in the pores, the author also makes the simile that they are like birds of prey, rapidly and aggressively devouring time instead of languishing. Urgency is further conveyed in the "torn pleasures" and the image of the running sun, which serves as a metonym for time itself. By the conclusion of the poem, it is clear that Marvell is opposed the "languishing in time", languish itself a juxtaposition with the language in the first stanza.