To His Coy Mistress

"To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell

"Had we but world enough, and time,/This coyness, lady, were no crime" (Marvell, 803).

From the beginning of the poem, the speaker is clear on his dilemma he is facing with his mistress. He is urging his mistress to stop being coy and have sex with him. She is being coy in not having sex with him but he asks her to do so before they die. He says that if they had more time, he would not mind that she was being coy presently. The reality to the speaker is that they are nearing death and therefore they do not have time to jump around her coyness and he urges her to have sex with him while they have the chance. The three stanzas split up the speakers argument into the three parts of his argument. The first being his admittance of knowing of her coyness. He says his love has grown as he has waited for her to have sex with him but that it is time for them to finally have sex. In the next stanza, he says that they do not have time to waste as they are nearing death and death is permeant and they cannot have sex once they are dead. The last stanza is the speakers final plea of his mistress to have sex with him while they can. The progression and set-up of the stanzas organize Marvell's thoughts as he progresses to convince his mistress to have sex with them before they die.