After reading it once it left me a bit confused but a second and third go always helps the mind to open up a little more.
What i under stood from the poem was a man who wanted his love to last an eternity with his Mistress. To always walk with her and stand by her he would do anything, even try to out run or out cast Time itself. He snaps into reality and realizes there is no running from time and thinks about all that he would lose to Death.
"Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run."
The picture that comes to my mind after reading these lines are the Man and Woman standing still, watching the sun set. It would be as if they sun is running from them if they stand still and watch it go by.
Do the speaker want love to last an eternity? Why does he begin the first stanza with " Had we but world enough and time" (Marvell 1)? Notice that he continually uses "should" and "would"?
ReplyDelete