What does COY mean? _______________________________________
There are three themes that frequently go together that we can see in this poem.
Marvell uses a logical form called a conditional statement. (If . . . then.)21-32If time did not fly, then we could take all the time we need before we actually consummate the relationship. They could take all the time from 10 years before Noah's flood until the conversion of the Jews to Christianity at the end of time.
Vegetable love - plants grow & age more slowly than animals.
He would spend immense amounts of time on his blazons of her. 100 years praising her eyes, 200 praising her breasts, 30,000 praising her etc.
But they can't. Why? We see in the next section
Time is flying & we must act now.
Her beauty will fade, & if she maintains her virginity until the grave, she'll just lose it to the worms.33-46"I think" no one embraces in the grave. This is a poetic device called understatement. Of course no one embraces in the grave. There her honor will turn to dust & his lust into ashes.
He shows the violence of love and life."Amorous birds of prey."
They should attack each other like mating falcons. We should embrace our mortality (and each other) with a gleam in our eyes.
"At once our time devour."
"Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run."In other words, "Live hard, die young."