Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress is a poem on erotic love written in the true tradition of Carpe Diem.
Carpe Diem is a Latin phrase meaning enjoy the present day. The poet dwells upon the inexorable passage of Time, the transitoriness of youth and beauty and finally makes a strong plea to his beloved to join him and enjoy life before it is too late. The expression Carpe Diem came to exemplify this idea, the spirit of eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. Audio Books
If the lover had all the time in the world, he says he would have loved his lady leisurely. They would sit down and decide which way they should walk and pass the day. They would talk to love the whole day. She would wander on the banks of the river Ganges and find rubies. He would sit by the shores of Humber and sing plaintive songs expressing his yearning for her. He would love her till the end of the world. She would turn down his live till the Jews are converted to Christianity. His love would grow exuberantly like a plant and become caster than empires. The love would use a hundred years praising the beauty of the beloved's eyes and forehead, two hundred years to adore each breast and thirty thousand years to the rest. It will take ages to praise each part. She deserves all such praise. The lover wouldn't love her in any other way.
The poet adopts the classical pattern of logically sound arguments to portray erotic love. The poem is in the true Carpe Diem mode. The lover says that Time passes quickly. Physical beauty fades quickly and dies. They have to seize the moment and make the best use of it. Now she is beautiful and youth. He is full of love. The lover invites the mistress to respond to the call of live. If she does not come to his embrace now, perhaps it will be too late because Time and Death pursue them relentlessly and there is no escape. With these infallible arguments the lover convinces his beloved of the urgency of physical love.Audio Books
The lover seeks the help of logic to convince his beloved of the urgency of their physical love. The stress is on sexual love the yearning of the body. The lover uses infallible logic and almost frightens the lady by drawing the terrible picture of Time devouring them body like a voracious bid of prey and her lovely body rotting inside the dark marble vault and works feasting on it. They have to seize the moment and get whatever they could before it is too late. The emphasis is on logic and reason to facilitate the realization of physical love.
