In Andrew Marvell’s poem “To His Coy Mistress,” what does the speaker say they should do if there were enough time?
Answer
Sit and think which way to walk
In Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress,” the speaker says that, if there were enough time, they would sit and think which way to walk.
The line appears in the poem’s opening hypothetical section: “Had we but world enough, and time, / This coyness, lady, were no crime.” The speaker imagines leisurely courtship across enormous stretches of time and geography, including admiration of the beloved’s eyes and forehead and love lasting until the conversion of the Jews.
The poem then changes direction by emphasizing time’s speed and the approach of death. Its final section urges the lovers to act intensely in the present rather than allowing desire to be restrained by delay. This three-part structure is a classic example of the carpe diem argument.
Marvell’s poem was probably written in the 1650s and published posthumously in 1681. Its language is witty, exaggerated, and rhetorically forceful. The quoted answer is specific to the poem’s imagined world of unlimited time, not the speaker’s actual plan.