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Time, Desire, and Rhetoric: A Multifaceted Analysis of Andrew Marvell’s ‘To His Coy Mistress’
10 min readJul 30, 2024
To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell
01 Had we but world enough and time,
02 This coyness, lady, were no crime.
03 We would sit down, and think which way
04 To walk, and pass our long love’s day.
05 Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side
06 Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
07 Of Humber would complain. I would
08 Love you ten years before the flood,
09 And you should, if you please, refuse
10 Till the conversion of the Jews.
11 My vegetable love should grow
12 Vaster than empires and more slow;
13 An hundred years should go to praise
14 Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
15 Two hundred to adore each breast,
