“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.
[...]
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.
[...]
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.”
What's it about?
This man's lover is shy ("coy"), or pretending to be shy, and wants to take their relationship slowly. He, on the other hand, is ready for more. So, the poem is an attempt to seduce her with his words and to sweet-talk her into bed.
He says that if he had all the time in the world, he'd happily take things slowly. He'd love to spend hundreds of years praising her beauty - moving his gaze from her "forehead" down to her "breast" and then "the rest".
But time is limited. There's no point in waiting until they're dead in their graves - that's no place for kissing. He knows she wants it too ("thy willing soul"). So, he reasons that now is the time to "sport us while we may". They should "devour" time hungrily, not lie trapped in its slow-moving jaws ("languish in his slow-chapped power"). They can't stop the sun moving across the sky, but they can "make him run" by enjoying every moment to the full.
Good to know
Andrew Marvell was an English poet, satirist and politician. He was a Member of Parliament and supported the Republican Oliver Cromwell against the monarchy in the English Civil War. When the monarchy was restored in 1660, Marvell somehow managed to avoid punishment for having been a Republican. Maybe the newly restored Charles II, known as "The Merry Monarch", enjoyed Marvell's poetry.
Words to go
The words "coy" and "coyness" suggest a false shyness, a coquettishness or flirtation.