Structure of the poem
- Iambic tetrameter (This could reflect the theme of time being short in the poem)
- First stanza is about immortality (imagining life without limits.
- Second stanza is about death and facing reality.
- Third stanza is about seduction (Tries to seduce her by being realistic and fanasaiable)
To His Coy Mistress
Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, Lady, were no crime,
The punctuation here of the many comma marks reflects the idea of eternity. He is slowing the reader down to emphasise this.
We would sit down and think which way
To walk and pass our long love's day.
Love's long day is a metaphor suggesting that there would be time to contemplate the direction f their relationship.
Thou by the Indian Ganges' side
Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Here he is placing her in an exoctic place and compares her to rubies which makes her seem precaious and beautiful. Next he compares himself to the humber which is less glamourous and exaggerates this idea of wooing her as he is using a tacting of comparing her to himself nd therefore allowing her to realise how special her thinks she is. Also he is saying here that if they were apart he would complain which exaggerates his love for her. A good thing to note is that the rivers here reflect a journey of their relatonship.
Love you ten years before the Flood,
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
Here the poet gets biblical. Here he is saying that I will love you at the beginning of life which is represented here as the flood, and I will love at the the end of time which is here represented as the converion of the jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow;
At first this could suggest a hidden love and that his love will grow however there is a hidden meaning that the vegetable love could be phallic imagery which focuses on the idea of the idea that the speaker just wants to have intercourse with this woman.
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;
Here we see a focus on sexual areas on her anatomy rather then her pure aspects of her body. This reflects in his intentions.
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
Only in the end will he know her heart reflecting that they will only love each other after intercourse. So it could be believed that he is manipulating her.
For, Lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.
Here he could be saying thatshe deserves to be loved by him which could suggest that he is of a higher status to her…