"To His Coy Mistress" is a poem written by the British author and Puritan statesman Andrew Marvell (1621 – 1678) either during or just before the Interregnum. The poem is often considered one of the finest and most concise carpe diem arguments ever put in verse. Poetry (ancient Greek: poieo = create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... A Puritan of 16th and 17th century England was any person seeking purity of worship and doctrine, especially the parties that rejected the Reformation of the Church of England. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... 1621 was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... Events August 10 - Treaty of Nijmegen ends the Dutch War. ... The English Interregnum was the period of parliamentary and military rule in the land occupied by modern-day England and Wales after the English Civil War. ... Carpe diem is a phrase from a Latin poem by Horace (Odes 1. ...

Marvell probably wrote the poem prior to serving in Oliver Cromwell's government as a minister, and the poem was not published in his lifetime. Oliver Cromwell (25 April 1599 – 3 September 1658) was an English military and political leader best known for his involvement in making England, Scotland and Ireland into a republican Commonwealth and for the brutal war exercised in his conquest of Ireland. ...

Synopsis

^{[verification needed]} The argument of the poem is straightforward. The speaker of the poem is arguing with his mistress and attempting to persuade her to have sex with him. He begins with a metaphysical conceit stating that, if he had eternity and wealth, he would spend lavish amounts of time courting her and praising her. However, he says that time is forever chasing the lovers. Were the lovers not to consummate their love, they would only grow old and die, and then instead of being penetrated by her lover (and hence losing her virginity), she would instead be penetrated and devoured by worms in a lonely tomb where there is no love. Therefore, the speaker says, the lovers should combine all of their strength into a single act of violent lovemaking, and then, even if they could not escape time, they could at least make the most of the time they had. The poem, which encompasses the male desire for sex, uses several motifs and imagery to build a very emotional persuasion. It has been suggested that Duration of sexual intercourse be merged into this article or section. ... The Metaphysical poets were a loose group of British lyric poets of the 17th century, who shared an interest in metaphysical concerns and a common way of investigating them. ... Look up conceit in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In literature, a motif is any recurring element that has symbolic significance. ...

The poetry is notable for its playful, explicit treatment of sex, its total control of tone and pacing, as well as its conciseness and precision in wording. Marvell was himself a supporter of Puritanism, and a friend of John Milton, and yet this poem may owe its form and content to the courtier poetry of the late Jacobean period. Literary historians will often place this poem thematically with the Metaphysicals (John Donne, George Herbert, Richard Lovelace and others), rather than with the Puritan poets. Certainly, the poem itself is a lyric, an argument poem, and full of conceits (radical metaphors that hinge on paradox). At the same time, the poem shows as well that Puritanism and romantic love were not antonyms. Marvell's "Damon the Mower" poems, probably written later, are also concerned with romantic love, though in a more pastoral form. Since the poem was not published by the author, dating its composition is difficult, and locating it precisely is speculative. For other persons named John Milton, see John Milton (disambiguation). ... For the Welsh courtier and diplomat, see Sir John Donne. ... George Herbert (April 3, 1593 – March 1, 1633) was an English poet, orator and a priest. ... Richard Lovelace (1618 - 1657) was an English poet and nobleman, born in Woolwich, today part of south-east London. ... Titians The Pastoral Concert Pastoral refers to the lifestyle of shepherds and pastoralists, moving livestock around larger areas of land according to seasons and availability of water and feed. ...

One possible explanation of the striking phrase "vegetable love" lies in the observation that a vegetable comes from the vegetative part of a plant, as opposed to a fruit, which comes from the reproductive part. Another explanation is that Marvell is alluding to the Latin vegere ("to be alive"), which is cognate with both vegetable and vigor.

"To His Coy Mistress" is also alluded to in Marvell's later poem, "The Garden". A poem by Andrew Marvell How vainly men themselves amaze To win the palm, the oak, or bays, And their incessant labours see Crowned from some single herb or tree, Whose short and narrow-verged shade Does prudently their toils upbraid; While all the flowers and trees do close To...

Echoes elsewhere

Many authors have borrowed the phrase "World enough and time" from the poem's opening line to use in their book titles. The most famous is Robert Penn Warren's 1950 novel World Enough and Time: A Romantic Novel, about murder in early-1800s Kentucky. With variations, it has also been used for books on the history of physics ("World Enough and Space-Time: Absolute versus Rational Theories of Space and Time"), geopolitics ("World Enough and Time: Successful Strategies for Resource Management"), a science-fiction collection ("Worlds Enough & Time: Five Tales of Speculative Fiction"), and, of course, a biography ("World Enough and Time: The Life of Andrew Marvell"). Also in the field of science fiction, Ursula K. Le Guin wrote a Hugo-nominated short story with the title, "Vaster than Empires and More Slow". Robert Penn Warren Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 – September 15, 1989) was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic, and was one of the founders of The New Criticism. ... Ursula Kroeber Le Guin [ˌɜɹsələ ˌkɹobɜɹ ləˈgWɪn] (born October 21, 1929) is an American author. ... The 2005 Hugo Award with base designed by Deb Kosiba. ...

The phrase "there will be time" occurs repeatedly in a section of T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", and is often said to be an allusion to Marvell's poem.^{[citation needed]} Prufrock says that there will be time "for the yellow smoke that slides along the street", time "to murder and create", and time "for a hundred indecisions ... Before the taking of a toast and tea". As Eliot's hero is, in fact, putting off romance and consummation, he is (falsely) answering Marvell's narrator. Eliot also alludes to the lines near the end of Marvell's poem, "Let us roll all our strength and all / Our sweetness up into one ball," with his lines, "To have squeezed the universe into a ball / To roll it toward some overwhelming question," as Prufrock questions whether or not such an act of daring would have been worth it. Eliot returns to Marvell in "The Waste Land" with the line "But at my back from time to time I hear / The sound of horns and motors" (Part III, line 196). Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM (September 26, 1888 – January 4, 1965), was a poet, dramatist and literary critic. ... The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, a poem by T. S. Eliot, marked the start of his career as one of the twentieth centurys most influential poets. ... The Waste Land (1922), sometimes mistakenly written as The Wasteland, is a highly influential 434-line modernist poem by T. S. Eliot. ...

Most recently, Audrey Niffenegger's fiction novel The Time Traveler's Wife borrows heavily from Andrew Marvell's poem. The novel focuses on the main character Henry DeTamble, a reluctant time-traveler who often proclaims his love for his lover Clare Abshire through the use of the phrase "World enough and time".^{[citation needed]}Archibald MacLeish's poem You, Andrew Marvell, alludes to the passage of time and to the growth and decline of empires. In his poem, the speaker, lying on the ground at sunset, feels "the rising of the night". He visualizes sunset, moving from east to west geographically, overtaking the great civilizations of the past, and feels "how swift how secretly/The shadow of the night comes on." Audrey Niffenegger (born June 13, 1963 in South Haven, Michigan) is a writer and artist. ... The Time Travelers Wife (ISBN 0-15-602943-X) is a novel by Audrey Niffenegger. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... Archibald MacLeish Archibald MacLeish (May 7, 1892 – April 20, 1982) was an American poet, writer and the Librarian of Congress. ...

Peter S. Beagle has a novel titled A Fine and Private Place. Ellery Queen used Fine and Private Place for one of his novels. Peter Soyer Beagle (born in 1939) is an American fantasist and author of novels, nonfiction, and screenplays. ... Frederic Dannay (left), with James Yaffe (1943) Ellery Queen is both a fictional character and a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn, New York: Daniel (David) Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay (October 20, 1905–September 3, 1982) and Manford (Emanuel) Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee (January 11, 1905–April...

External links

• To His Coy Mistress: A Study Guide With an Annotated Copy of the Poem
• "His Coy Mistress to Mr. Marvell" by A. D. Hope – The object of Marvell's attentions replies, a breast-and-a-halfsworth later.