Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” – Part 1 Waywords Podcast

7 October 2022

Episode 5  - Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" - Part 1

What do we do with--how do we read--can we make us of--a classic and famous metaphysical poem which is also misogynistic?



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Chapters



00:00     Intro

01:10     Marvell and TS Eliot

04:00     Metaphysical Poetry

08:23     Reading: Marvell's "Coy Mistress"

11:07     A Quick Breakdown

16:51     Carpe Diem

20:43     Christian and Pagan

27:51     What's Ahead

32:00     Outro



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To His Coy Mistress

Andrew Marvell, 1681



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.

Thou 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

Till 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;

Two 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,

Nor would I love at lower rate.



But at my back I always hear

Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;

And yonder all before us lie

Deserts of vast eternity.

Thy 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 honor turn to dust,

And 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 dew,

And while thy willing soul transpires

At every pore with instant fires,

Now let us sport us while we may,

And now, like amorous birds of prey,

Rather at once our time devour

Than languish in his slow-chapped power.

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:

Thus, though we cannot make our sun

Stand still, yet we will make him run.



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The Waywords Podcast is the primary program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with deep-dive examinations of literature around some common questions or themes and 1-3 smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs. 



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