To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell: poem analysis & meaning

To His Coy Mistress the full poem, lines numbered

Had we but world enough, and time,

This coyness lady were no crime.

We would sit down, and think which way

To walk, and pass our long love’s day.

5Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side

Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide

Of Humber would complain. I would

Love you ten years before the Flood:

And you should if you please refuse

10Till the conversion of the Jews.

My vegetable love should grow

Vaster than empires, and more slow.

An hundred years should go to praise

Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze.

15Two hundred to adore each breast:

But thirty thousand to the rest.

An age at least to every part,

And the last age should show your heart.

For lady you deserve this state;

20Nor would I love at lower rate.

But at my back I always hear

Time’s winged chariot hurrying near:

And yonder all before us lie

Deserts of vast eternity.

25Thy beauty shall no more be found;

Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound

My echoing song: then worms shall try

That long preserved virginity:

And your quaint honour turn to dust;

30And into ashes all my lust.

The grave’s a fine and private place,

But none I think do there embrace.

Now therefore, while the youthful hue

Sits on thy skin like morning glew,

35And while thy willing soul transpires

At every pore with instant fires,

Now let us sport us while we may;

And now, like am’rous birds of prey,

Rather at once our time devour,

40Than languish in his slow-chapped pow’r.

Let us roll all our strength, and all

Our sweetness, up into one ball:

And tear our pleasures with rough strife,

Thorough the iron gates of life.

45Thus, though we cannot make our sun

Stand still, yet we will make him run.

The poem in 60 seconds

A man tries to persuade a reluctant woman to become his lover, and he builds his case like a logic exercise: if we had time, but we don’t, therefore let’s not waste it. The argument starts as extravagant flattery, turns suddenly grim with worms in a marble tomb, and ends in a burst of fierce, almost violent energy. Watch the tone change across the three sections, and ask whether the speaker is a lover, a debater, or someone genuinely frightened of time.

If they had all the world and all the time they wanted, the speaker tells his lady, her coyness would be no crime. She could look for rubies beside the Ganges in India while he sang sad love songs by the Humber in England. He would love her from ten years before Noah’s Flood, and she could refuse him until the conversion of the Jews. His love would grow like a plant, vaster than empires and slower. He would spend a hundred years praising her eyes, two hundred on each breast and thirty thousand on the rest. But he always hears Time’s winged chariot hurrying near, and ahead lie deserts of eternity. In her marble tomb her beauty will be gone and his song unheard; worms will test her long-kept virginity, and her honour and his lust will turn to dust and ashes. The grave is private, but no one embraces there. So now, while she is young and willing, they should devour their time like birds of prey, roll their strength and sweetness into one ball and tear their pleasures through the iron gates of life. They cannot make the sun stand still, but they can make it run.

Speaker & situation

SpeakerAn unnamed male lover who argues like a lawyer or a debater. How far he speaks for Marvell himself is unknown, so it is safest to treat him as a persona, a character the poet creates.

Addressed toThe “lady” of lines 2 and 19, the “coy mistress” of the title. She never speaks, but the whole poem answers her refusal. In Marvell’s day “mistress” could mean simply a woman a man loved and courted.

OccasionA private plea: the speaker wants the lady to give up her coyness and become his lover now. The poem was first printed in Marvell’s Miscellaneous Poems in 1681, three years after his death in 1678. When he wrote it is not known.

TonePlayful and flattering in the first section, dark and mocking in the second, urgent and fierce in the third. The wit never quite disappears, even at the grave.

Form & sound

FormLyric poem; a 46-line argument in three verse paragraphs of 20, 12 and 14 lines, spoken by a lover to a lady who does not answer. The 1681 book prints the poem as one block and marks the second and third paragraphs by indenting them.

MeterIambic tetrameter, eight syllables and four beats a line: “Had we but world enough, and time” (line 1). The short line keeps the argument quick and witty. In line 44, “Thorough” is an old two-syllable form of “through” that the meter needs.

Rhyme schemeRhyming couplets throughout (AABB), starting with “time” and “crime” (lines 1–2). Each couplet snaps shut like a step in a proof. Line 29 reads “dust,” rhyming with “lust”; the 1681 book misprinted it as “durst,” and this text corrects it, as modern editions do.

SoundThe pace follows the argument. The first section lingers over long numbers and faraway places. Line 22, “Time’s winged chariot hurrying near,” rushes, and the last section piles up hard verbs: “devour,” “roll,” “tear.”

StructureA three-part argument shaped like a logical proof: “Had we” (line 1) states a condition, “But” (line 21) shows the condition is false, and “Now therefore” (line 33) draws the conclusion.

Line by line what each part says and does

1

Lines 1–10

Had we but world enough

If they had world enough and time, the lady’s coyness would be no crime. They could sit and decide where to walk. She could find rubies by the Ganges while he lamented by the Humber, and he would love her from ten years before the Flood while she refused him till the conversion of the Jews.

How it worksThe fantasy stretches across space, from India to the English river Humber, and across all of history, from Noah’s Flood to the conversion of the Jews, which Christians of Marvell’s time expected only near the end of the world. The exaggeration is flattery and a joke at once.
2

Lines 11–20

Vegetable love

His “vegetable love” would grow vaster than empires and more slowly. He would spend a hundred years praising her eyes and gazing at her forehead, two hundred adoring each breast, thirty thousand on the rest, and an age on every part, with the last age reserved for her heart. She deserves such treatment, and he would not love her at any lower rate.

How it worksThis mocks the blazon, the love poet’s catalog of a lady’s features, by costing it out in years like a bill. “Vegetable” means growing like a plant, alive and spreading but slow and without feeling, a comic image for passion.
3

Lines 21–24

Time’s winged chariot

But at his back he always hears Time’s winged chariot hurrying near, and ahead of them lie deserts of vast eternity.

How it worksThe single word “But” wrecks the fantasy. The endless time of the first section returns as eternity, and it is a desert, empty and without love.
4

Lines 25–32

The marble vault

Her beauty will be gone, and his song will not echo in her marble tomb. Worms will test her long-preserved virginity, her honour will turn to dust and his lust to ashes. The grave is a fine and private place, but no one embraces there.

How it worksThe images are meant to shock: the worms become grotesque rivals for her body. Then lines 31–32 switch to cool understatement, and that dry irony is the argument’s sharpest point.
5

Lines 33–40

Now therefore

Now, while youthful color sits on her skin “like morning glew” and her willing soul breathes out at every pore with instant fires, let them play while they can. Like amorous birds of prey, they should devour their time at once rather than languish in its slow-jawed power.

How it worksThe conclusion reverses the first section: speed instead of slow courtship, predators instead of patient admirers. “Slow-chapped” means slow-jawed, so time is a beast chewing them slowly, and the lovers will eat time first.
6

Lines 41–46

We will make him run

Let them roll all their strength and sweetness into one ball and tear their pleasures with rough strife through the iron gates of life. Though they cannot make the sun stand still, they will make him run.

How it worksThe ball gathers all their force into one object, and “iron gates” makes life itself a barrier to break through. The last couplet answers the opening: they cannot have more time, but they can make the time they have move at their speed.

The turn

Lines 21

The poem turns twice, and the turns carry the argument. Line 21, “But at my back I always hear,” breaks the leisurely fantasy of lines 1–20 with the fact of death. Line 33, “Now therefore,” turns again, from the grave to the conclusion: love now.

Literary devices with line numbers

Hyperbole

Lines 13–17 give “An hundred years” to her eyes, “Two hundred” to each breast and “thirty thousand to the rest.” The absurd numbers flatter the lady and, at the same time, make slow courtship look ridiculous.

Personification

In line 22 Time drives a “winged chariot,” and in line 40 it has a “slow-chapped” jaw, a mouth that chews slowly. Time becomes a pursuer and a predator, which makes the threat physical.

Allusion

The poem measures time by the Bible: “the Flood” (line 8) and “the conversion of the Jews” (line 10) mark the beginning and end of history. The final couplet (lines 45–46) recalls the story of Joshua, who made the sun stand still; these lovers cannot, so they will make it run instead.

Understatement

Lines 31–32, “The grave’s a fine and private place, / But none I think do there embrace,” speak of death in a calm, almost polite voice. The mildness makes the point colder: privacy is exactly what lovers want, and the grave offers it uselessly.

Metaphysical conceit

In line 11 love is “vegetable,” growing like a plant, and in lines 41–42 the lovers roll their strength and sweetness “up into one ball.” These surprising, stretched comparisons are typical of the metaphysical poets, who argued through wit.

Simile

In line 38 the lovers are to be “like am’rous birds of prey.” Love poetry usually pictures lovers as doves; Marvell makes them hawks, turning desire into an attack on time.

Themes in To His Coy Mistress

Carpe diemTime and mortalityDesire and persuasionDefying time

Carpe diem

The Latin phrase, from the Roman poet Horace, means “seize the day.” The poem is a classic carpe diem argument: life is short, so pleasure should be taken now, “while we may” (line 37).

Time and mortality

Time is first imagined as endless (lines 1–20), then as a chariot at the speaker’s back (line 22), and finally as an enemy to be outrun (line 46). Death, in the “marble vault” (line 26), is the fact that drives every step of the argument.

Desire and persuasion

The poem is a speech meant to win something. Its flattery, fear and urgency are all tactics, and readers disagree about whether the speaker’s passion is love, lust, or both.

Defying time

The ending does not deny that time wins. It proposes a different kind of victory: “though we cannot make our sun / Stand still, yet we will make him run” (lines 45–46). Intensity replaces length.

Images and symbols

Time’s winged chariot

Time pictured as a swift vehicle closing in from behind (line 22). It stands for mortality that cannot be escaped or slowed down.

The marble vault

The tomb of line 26, cold, silent and closed. It stands for death as the end of beauty, song and love, a place where “none ... do there embrace.”

The sun

In lines 45–46 the sun stands for time itself, the measure of the days. The lovers cannot stop it, but they can make it “run.”

Patterns

Now. “Now therefore” (line 33), “Now let us sport us” (line 37), “And now” (line 38). After two sections of “would” and “shall,” the repeated word hammers home the present moment.

Tensions

Desire vs. modesty. The speaker’s desire runs up against the lady’s “coyness” (line 2) and her “quaint honour” (line 29). The poem gives only his side.

Humans vs. time. The lovers cannot stop time or escape death, and the poem admits it. The question is only how to live with that limit.

The ending

How To His Coy Mistress ends, explained

The last section begins “Now therefore” (line 33), the words of a conclusion. While the lady’s youthful color sits on her skin and her “willing soul” breathes out “At every pore with instant fires,” they should “sport us while we may” (lines 33–37). Then the images turn violent. They will be “am’rous birds of prey” who devour time rather than languish in its slow jaws (lines 38–40). They will roll their strength and sweetness into one ball and “tear” their pleasures “with rough strife” through “the iron gates of life” (lines 41–44). The final couplet closes the argument: “Thus, though we cannot make our sun / Stand still, yet we will make him run.” The line recalls Joshua in the Bible, who made the sun stand still. Lovers cannot do that, but they can make the sun race by living at full speed. Readers take the ending in different ways. Some find it exhilarating, a defiant answer to death in which intensity replaces length. Others hear desperation: the speaker has already admitted that the grave wins, so his victory is only one of speed. Many also point out that the poem is a speech meant to win the lady, and its logic is a tactic. Whether she is persuaded, the poem does not say, because she never speaks.

“Had we but world enough, and time, / This coyness lady were no crime.”

Lines 1–2. The opening condition. “Had we but” means “if only we had,” so the whole first section is built on a wish the poem will soon cancel.

“But at my back I always hear / Time’s winged chariot hurrying near:”

Lines 21–22. The turn. The leisurely fantasy collapses as time becomes a pursuer, heard but never seen, always behind the speaker.

“The grave’s a fine and private place, / But none I think do there embrace.”

Lines 31–32. Dark wit through understatement. The grave offers exactly the privacy lovers want, and none of the love.

“Thus, though we cannot make our sun / Stand still, yet we will make him run.”

Lines 45–46. The conclusion. The lovers cannot stop time, so they will speed it up by living at full intensity, a victory of pace, not of length.

Common misreadings

MythThe first section shows that the speaker is a patient, romantic lover.

ActuallyLines 1–20 are a condition that the poem immediately cancels. “Had we but” means “if only we had,” and line 21’s “But” says they do not, so all the centuries of praise are set up to be knocked down.

MythMarvell wrote “like morning dew” in line 34.

ActuallyThe 1681 book reads “like morning glew.” Many anthologies print “dew,” an editors’ change first printed in Thomas Cooke’s edition of Marvell (1726), and some print “glow” or “lew” (warmth). The meaning of “glew” is still argued over, perhaps a sheen or moisture on the skin, so this text keeps the printed word. It is an editors’ choice, and “dew” should not be quoted as the reading of the 1681 text.

Myth“Mistress” means the woman is already his lover.

ActuallyIn Marvell’s time the word could mean a woman a man courted and loved. The whole poem assumes she has not yet agreed: it argues against her “coyness” (line 2) and her “long preserved virginity” (line 28).

AP practice a poetry prompt in the exam's style

In “To His Coy Mistress,” Andrew Marvell’s speaker argues that a reluctant lady should give up her coyness because time is short. Read the poem carefully, then write an essay that analyzes how Marvell uses literary elements and techniques to convey a complex perspective on time, desire and death.

What a strong response notices

The three-part structure of condition (lines 1–20), objection (lines 21–32) and conclusion (lines 33–46), marked by “Had we,” “But” and “Now therefore.”
The hyperbole of lines 11–18, which flatters the lady and mocks slow courtship.
The shift in imagery at lines 21–24, from rivers and rubies to a chariot and “Deserts of vast eternity.”
The grotesque worms of lines 27–28 and the understatement of lines 31–32.
The violent images of the ending, “birds of prey,” “rough strife,” “iron gates” (lines 38–44), and the paradox of making the sun run (lines 45–46).

Practice prompt written by StoryBites, not taken from a College Board exam. See the AP Literature free-response guide for how answers are scored.

Test yourself

1. What does “Had we but world enough, and time” mean?

2. Where does the speaker say he would complain of love while the lady finds rubies by the Ganges?

3. What does the speaker always hear at his back?

4. According to lines 31–32, what is missing from the grave?

5. What do the lovers do about the sun in the final couplet?

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Answer

Explain it like I’m 12

A young man wants a young woman to be his girlfriend, but she keeps saying no. He tells her that if they had all the time in the world, he would happily spend thousands of years praising her. But they don’t have that much time, because everyone grows old and dies. He describes the grave in a creepy way to make his point. So, he says, they should enjoy being young and together right now. They can’t stop time, but they can make the most of the time they have.

Compare & connect

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

John Donne

Another metaphysical poem in which a speaker argues with the woman he loves through bold, clever comparisons. Donne argues for patience while the lovers are apart; Marvell argues against waiting at all.

Sonnet 116

William Shakespeare

Shakespeare insists that “Love’s not Time’s fool” and outlasts decay. Marvell’s speaker makes the opposite bet: time wins, so love must hurry.

Ode on a Grecian Urn

John Keats

The lovers painted on Keats’s urn are frozen just before a kiss, with endless time and no fulfilment. Marvell’s speaker wants fulfilment and knows he has no time.

Discussion and essay prompts:

💬 Discussion questions

What is To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell about
What is the three-part argument in To His Coy Mistress
What does vegetable love mean in To His Coy Mistress
How does To His Coy Mistress explore the theme of carpe diem?
How does To His Coy Mistress explore the theme of time and mortality?
What is the central conflict in To His Coy Mistress, and how does it shape the ending?

✎ Essay prompts

Analyze how Andrew Marvell develops the theme of carpe diem in To His Coy Mistress. Support your argument with specific evidence from the text.
Examine the significance of time’s winged chariot in To His Coy Mistress. What does it represent, and how does it deepen the work’s meaning?
How does Andrew Marvell use hyperbole to shape the reader’s experience of To His Coy Mistress?
Some readers assume that the first section shows that the speaker is a patient, romantic lover. Argue for or against this interpretation, using evidence from the text.

Key questions students ask

What is To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell about
What is the three-part argument in To His Coy Mistress
What does vegetable love mean in To His Coy Mistress
What does Time’s winged chariot hurrying near mean
Is it morning dew or morning glew in To His Coy Mistress
What does we cannot make our sun stand still yet we will make him run mean

Analysis is original StoryBites commentary. The poem is printed from Marvell’s Miscellaneous Poems (London, 1681), with the spelling modernized and one printer’s error corrected, checked line by line against the page images of that printing. It is in the public domain.