Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” consists of twenty-three couplets. The thematic arrangement of the three sections resembles the two premises and proposition of a syllogism: if we had unlimited time, it would be fine to wait before we have sexual intercourse, but time is limited, so we should have at it now.
Andrew Marvell was writing in the 17th century, and at that time the term “mistress” did not carry the connotation of an extramarital sex partner that it does in modern American English. “Mistress” merely meant “woman” or “lady.” The woman in this poem is a virgin, and the speaker is a cad who wants to seduce her, much like the one in John Donne’s “The Flea.”
First Premise: “Had we but world enough, and time”
The speaker begins his seduction play by pointing out that the two people involved are mortal and therefore should not delay physical gratification. It they had all the time in the world, they could pass it any number of ways, including the close cogitation about “which way / To walk.” She could amble along the Ganges River in India looking for precious gemstones, while he would go crumbling to himself, waiting for her by the Humber River in England.
He then says that she could continue to decline his propositions for ages and ages, for example, “Till the conversion of the Jews.” His love could continue to grow “Vaster than empires, and more slow.” He could wait a “hundred years”; even “two hundred years” he could pass in admiring each breast. He could devote even “thirty thousand” years to the rest of her person, if they had time, and he admits that she would be worth every minute of it.
Second Premise: “But at my back I always hear”
Unfortunately, they do no have thirty thousand years, not even a hundred years for him to admire and drool over her various body parts. They face only death and “deserts of vast eternity” when there will no longer be such beauty for him to ogle. He then tries to appeal to her sense of logic by saying that if he cannot have the honor taking her virginity, then “worms” will do so.
He insults her common sense by calling her notion of notion of honor “quaint.” He conveniently omits any reference to the troubles that would follow the indiscretion of such an assignation. He gleefully allows himself to be guided by his genitals, not his brain, and he ridicules for her for using her mind.
Proposition: “Now therefore, while the youthful hue”
The obvious conclusion for this speaker is that because they have so little time, and nothing lies before them but the fading of beauty, then they should begin their sexual experiences now. The speaker fantasizes that the woman is as eager to begin intercourse as he is: “while thy willing soul transpires / At every pore with instant fires, / Now let us sport us while we may.”
He then imagines their sexual congress to resemble “am’rous birds of prey” and fancies that they will, “roll all [their] strength, and all / Out sweetness, up into one ball.” Further, they should, “tear [their] pleasures with rough strife.” He does not just suggest intercourse, but he also wants it to be rough, and hints at even further perversion in his final comparison, “though we cannot make our sun / Stand still, yet we will make him run.”
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