To His Coy Mistress 分析及翻译

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 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 winged 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 preserv'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

A Poem by Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)

Study Guide

Type of Work

.......

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, sensible) object. In

(line 11) in a waggish metaphor.

Mockery of idealized romantic poetry through crude or shocking imagery, as in lines 27 and 28 (

try / That long preserved virginity').

Gross exaggeration (hyperbole), as in line 15 (

Expression of personal, private feelings, such as those the young man expresses in

Presentation

of

a

logical

argument,

or

syllogism.

In

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

passes

swiftly

and

relentlessly.

(3)

Therefore,

we

must

enjoy

the

pleasure

of

each

other

now,

without

further conclusion of the argument begins at Line 33 with

The Title

.......The title suggests (1) that the author looked over the shoulder of a young man as he wrote a plea to a young

lady

and

(2)

that

the

author

then

reported

the

plea

exactly

as

the

young

man

expressed

it.

However,

the

author

added the title, using the third-person possessive pronoun

reader that the lady is no easy catch; the word

and lover. It can also serve as the female equivalent of master. In

synonym for lady or sweetheart. In reality, of course, Marvell wrote the entire poem.

The Persona (The Young Man)

.......Although Andrew Marvell writes

the plea of another man (fictional, of course). The poet enters the mind of the man and reports his thoughts as they

manifest themselves. 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. Consequently,

one may describe him as immature and selfish.

Theme and Summary

.......“To His Coy

Mistress”

presents

a

familiar

theme

in

literature—

carpe

diem

(meaning

seize

the

day),

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 response 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 passes 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

praises

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 case: Seize

the day.

Meter and Rhyme

The

poem

is

in

iambic

tetrameter,

with

eight

syllables

(four

feet)

per

line.

Each

foot

consists

of

an

unstressed

syllable followed by a stressed 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

Had WE..|..but WORLD..|..e NOUGH..|..and TIME

.......1..........

..2...........

....3...............4

This COY..|..ness LA..|..dy WERE..|..no CRIME

Setting

The poem does not present 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

Young Man: He pleads with a young lady to stop playing hard to get and accept his love.

Young Lady: A coquettish woman.

Notes

1.....coyness: Evasiveness, hesitancy, modesty, coquetry, reluctance; playing hard to get.

2.....which . . .

walk:

Example

of

enjambment

(carrying

the

sense

of

one

line

of

verse

over

to

the

next

line

without a pause).

3.....Ganges: River in Asia originating in the Himalayas and flowing southeast, through India, to the Bay of Bengal.

The young man here suggests that the young lady could postpone her commitment to him if her youth lasted a long,

long time. She could take real or imagined journeys abroad, even to India. She could also refuse to commit herself

to him until all the Jews convert to Christianity. But since youth is fleeting (as the poem later points out), there is