Reading
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-chapp’d power.
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.
Instructions:
1st, cut and paste the following questions into a word processor;
2nd, answer them in complete sentences, explaining your contentions;
INQUIRIES
1. Summarize the speaker’s argument:
2. Is the argument valid? Explain your answer.
3. How would you refute or counter the argument?
4. Many consider this poem to be a satire — what is it satirizing?
5. Marvell uses a literary technique called “hyperbole” – (a form of exaggeration); give two examples:
6. Why does Marvell use hyperbole?
7. What conclusion(s) does Marvell draw?
8. What support(s)/evidence does he give for his conclusion(s)?
9. How does his commentary (tying support to conclusion) use the support (reasons) to argue for the conclusion (main idea)?
10. Write a counter-point (poetry preferred, or prose) from the woman’s point of view:
