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Coy Mistress

The Pursuit of Love

He indicates in the lines, “Had we but world enough and time / This coyness, Lady were no crime” (1-2), he is older and does not have a world of time; if he were her age her coyness would be no problem. It seems he is willing at this point to wait for her endlessly, making references to biblical events, “Love you ten years before the flood, / And you should if you please refuse / Till the conversion of the Jews” (8-10), ten years before the flood, in the beginning of the bible until the conversion of the Jews, which is a predicted event that has not yet happened. He shows his willingness to be faithfully waiting for her from a time thousands of years ago through to an event that as yet has only been predicted and has not yet occurred. He realizes that she is deserving, and should be totally satisfied by her lover, he also seems to know that over time the heated desire will fade, “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” (17-20), the last age showing your heart, saying that in the last age of a relationship, the desire may fade, but hot his love for her will not. Nor would I love at a lower rate, she deserves and should expect to be satisfied by her lover, and he is willing to take things slowly if that is what she desires. He is pleading with her and letting her know his strong physical desire for her and he is also letting her know that through the years, as much as he strongly desires her, he loves her also. The poem concludes with a much more urgent plea, “But at my back I always hear / Time’s a winged chariot hurrying near;” (21-22), he is realizing that life does not go on forever, referring to the winged chariot, meaning his death. He is expressing a strong physical desire for her “Let us roll all our strength and all / Our sweetness up it to one ball,” (41-42) these are expressions of his urgent desire to have a sexual...