Andrew Marvell

“Music, the mosaic of the air”

“What wondrous life in this I leadRipe apples drop about my head”

“Like the vain curlings of the watery maze,Which in smooth streams a sinking weight does raise,So Man, declining always, disappearsIn the weak circles of increasing years;And his short tumults of themselves compose,While flowing Time above his head does close.”

“My love is of a birth as rareAs 'tis, for object, strange and high;It was begotten by DespairUpon Impossibility.”

“The grave's a fine and private place,But none, I think, do there embrace.”

“But Fate does iron wedges drive,And always crowds itself betwixt.”

“Thus, though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.”

“But at my back I always hear Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near; And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity.”

“Ye glow-worms, whose officious flameTo wand’ring mowers shows the way,That in the night have lost their aim,And after foolish fires do stray;Your courteous lights in vain you waste,Since Juliana here is come,For she my mind hath so displac’dThat I shall never find my home.”

“To His Coy MistressHad 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 wingèd 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-preserved 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 amorous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour Than languish in his slow-chapped 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.”

“To wander solitary there:Two paradises ‘twere in oneTo live in paradise alone.”

“My vegetable love will growVaster than empires, and more slow.”

“As lines, so love's oblique, may wellThemselves in every angle greet :But ours, so truly parallel,Though infinite, can never meet.”

“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 Loves Day.”

“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 amorous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour Than languish in his slow-chapped 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.”

“For Juliana comes, and she, what I do to the grass, does to my thoughts and me.”