To His Coy Mistress
Andrew Marvell 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 plea, refu
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow.
An hundred years should go to prai
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 derve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.
But at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near;
记分周期And yonder all before us lie
Derts 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 prerv'd virginity,
And your quaint honour 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 am'rous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour,
Than languish in his slow-chapt 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: Thus, though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.
To His Coy Mistress
鸡蛋哥哥A Poem by Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)
Study Guide
Type of Work
......."To His Coy Mistress," acclaimed long after Marvell's death a masterly work, is a lyrical poem that scholars also classify as a metaphysical poem. Metaphysical poetry, pioneered by John Donne, tends to focus on the following:
Startling comparisons or contrasts of a metaphysical (spiritual, transcendent, abstract) quality to a concrete (physical, tangible, nsible) object. In "To His Coy Mistress," for example, Marvell compares love to a vegetable (line 11) in a waggish metaphor.
Mockery of idealized romantic poetry through crude or shocking imagery, as in lines 27 and 28 ("then worms shall try / That long prerved virginity').
Gross exaggeration (hyperbole), as in line 15 ("two hundred [years] to adore each breast].
Expression of personal, private feelings, such as tho the young man express i n "To Hi s Coy Mi stress." Prentation of a logical argument, or syllogism. In "To His Coy Mistress," this argument may be outlined as follows: (1) We could spend decades or even centuries in courtship if time stood still and we remained young. (2) But time pass swiftly and relentlessly. (3) Therefore, we must enjoy the pleasure of each other now, without further ado.The conclusion of the argument begins at Line 33 with "Now therefore."
The Title怠政
.......The title suggests (1) that the author looked over the shoulder of a young man as he wrote a ple
a to a young lady and (2) that the author then reported the plea exactly as the young man expresd it. However, the author added the title, using the third-person posssive pronoun "his" to refer to the young man. The word "coy" tells the reader that the lady is no easy catch; the word "mistress" can mean lady, manager, caretaker, courtesan, sweetheart, and lover. It can also rve as the female equivalent of master. In "To His Coy Mistress," the word appears to be a synonym for lady or sweetheart. In reality, of cour, Marvell wrote the entire poem.
The Persona (The Y oung Man)
.......Although Andrew Marvell writes "To His Coy Mistress" in first-person point of view, he prents the poem as the plea of another man (fictional, of cour). The poet enters the mind of the man and reports his thoughts as they manifest themlves. The young man is impatient, desperately so, unwilling to tolerate temporizing on the part of the young lady. His motivation appears to be carnal desire rather than true love; passion rules him. Conquently, one may describe him as immature and lfish.
高速注意事项
Theme and Summary
.......“To His Coy Mistress” prents a familiar theme in literature—carpe diem (meaning ize the da
y), a term coined by the ancient Roman poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus, known as Horace (65-8 B.C.). Here is the gist of Andrew Marvell's poem: In respon to a young man’s declarations of love for a young lady, the lady is playfully hesitant, artfully demure. But dallying will not do, he says, for youth pass swiftly. He and the lady must take advantage of the moment, he says, and “sport us while we may.” Oh, yes, if they had “world enough, and time” they would spend their days in idle pursuits, leisurely passing time while the young man heaps prais on the young lady. But they do not have the luxury of time, he says, for “time's wingéd chariot” is ever racing along. Before they know it, their youth will be gone; there will be only the grave. And so, the poet pleads his ca: Seize the day.
Meter and Rhyme
The poem is in iambic tetrameter, with eight syllables (four feet) per line. Each foot consists of an unstresd syllable followed by a stresd syllable. The last syllable of Line 1 rhymes with the last syllable of line 2, the last syllable of line 3 rhymes with the last syllable of line 4, the last syllable of line 5 rhymes with the last syllable of line 6, and so on. Such pairs of rhyming lines are called couplets. The following two lines, which open the poem, exhibit the meter and rhyme prevailing in most of the other couplets in the poem:
......1..................2...................3 (4)
and TIME
.......1.......... ..2........... ....3 (4)
CRIME
Setting
The poem does not prent a scene in a specific place in which people interact. However, the young man and the young lady presumably live somewhere in England (the native land of the author), perhaps in northeastern England near the River Humber. The poet mentions the Humber in line 7.
Characters
Y oung Man: He pleads with a young lady to stop playing hard to get and accept his love.
Y oung Lady: A coquettish woman.
端午节手抄报简单Notes
友情和爱情的区别1.....coyness: Evasiveness, hesitancy, modesty, coquetry, reluctance; playing hard to get.
to him until all the Jews convert to Christianity. But since youth is fleeting (as the poem later points out), there is no time for such journeys. She must submit herlf to him now.
鸡的故事
nbounded by time. He would love her ten years before great flood that Noah outlasted in his ark (Gen. 5:28-10:32) and would still love her until all Jews became Christians at the end of the world.
vegetable love: love cultivated and nurtured like a vegetable so that it flourishes prolifically
安溪茶14...transpires: Erupts, breaks out, emits, gives off.
Comments
Lines 5 and 6, Lines 23 and 24, Lines 27 and 28: The final stresd vowel sounds of the pairs of lines do not rhyme, as do the final stresd vowel sounds of all the other pairs of lines.
Three Sections of the Poem: Lines 1-20 discuss what would happen if the young man and young woman had unlimited time. Lines 21-32 point out that they do not have unlimited time. Lines 33-46 urge the young woman to ize the day and submit.
Andrew Marvell
.......Andrew Marvell was born in Winestead, South Y orkshire, England, on March 31, 1621. His father was a minister. The family moved to Hull, in the county of Humberside, when Andrew was three. There, he grew up and attended school. In 1639, a year after his mother died, Marvell received a bachelor's degree from Cambridge University's Trinity College. His father died in 1640. Between 1642 and 1646, Marvell traveled in continental Europe, visiting France, the Netherlands, Sp
ain, Switzerland, and Italy. In 1651, he accepted a position at Nun Appleton, Y orkshire, as tutor to 12-year-old Mary Fairfax, the daughter Sir Thomas Fairfax, commander of the Parliamentary army in the 1640's during the English Civil Wars. Marvell remained in that position until 1652.
