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

7 February 2025

Episode 5.02 – 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
01:09 Interjection: Why This Episode?
01:55 Marvell and TS Eliot
04:46 Metaphysical Poetry
09:09 Reading: Marvell’s “Coy Mistress”
11:53 A Quick Breakdown
17:37 Carpe Diem
22:46 Christian and Pagan
30:46 What’s Ahead
34:56 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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https://waywordsstudio.com

Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/marvell/

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Transcript: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/transcript-5-02-andrew-marvells-to-his-coy-mistress-pt-1/

Literary Nomads is the primary program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas.

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CREDITS:

Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/)

Transitions by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski

USING THIS WORK:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution.

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