Audiobook · read by volunteers
To His Coy Mistress
Andrew Marvell (1621–1678)
Read by Alan Davis Drake (1945-2010), Andrew Miller, Annie Coleman Rothenberg, David Gunn, Graham Williams, JemmaBlythe, Kara Shallenberg (1969-2023), Martin Clifton, Peter Eastman, Sean McKinley · 11 chapters · 31 min
About the book
Had we but world enough, and time: this coyness, lady, were no crime. So begins one of the most famous seduction speeches in English poetry, in which a lover argues, with wit, charm and a touch of menace, that time is running out and love should not wait. Andrew Marvell's poem moves from playful flattery to grim reminders of the grave and finally to a daring call to seize the day. In this collection, eleven LibriVox volunteers each give their own reading, recorded for the weekly poetry project in July 2006. The differences make the poem new each time, and the whole set takes about half an hour. Wit, passion and mortality in a few dozen lines.
Introduction
Andrew Marvell, who lived from 1621 to 1678, was an English poet and politician. He served as a member of Parliament and worked in government during the troubled years of the Civil War and the Commonwealth, and he was a friend and colleague of John Milton. His poems, which include The Garden and An Horatian Ode, were largely published only after his death, and his reputation as one of the finest of the metaphysical poets grew slowly.
To His Coy Mistress is the best known of his poems. It is a love poem in the form of a logical argument: if we had endless time, I would adore you slowly, but we do not, so we should not delay. The first section imagines vast, comical stretches of courtship, the second lets in the cold wind of death, and the third urges the lovers to act. Marvell packs an enormous range of tone into a short space, from extravagant compliment to grim imagery, and the closing lines are among the best known in the language.
The recording brings together the eleven versions made for a LibriVox weekly poetry project in the summer of 2006, each in a chapter of its own, and the set lasts about half an hour. Because the poem is a speech, a performance in miniature, each volunteer finds a different speaker, a different tone and a different kind of lover.
It is an excellent way to hear how a single text can support many interpretations, and a vivid introduction to seventeenth century verse. Its most famous lines have found a place in countless anthologies.
Public domain
Andrew Marvell died in 1678: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text