Lines 7-10
"I would Love you ten years before the Flood,
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews."
The narrator of this poem is very concerned with time. He loves the mistress *now* and he wants to make love to her *now*. He says "I would Love you ten years before the Flood" and "Till the conversion of the Jews" (which is an allusion and hyperbole) to show that if he could love her forever he would but that is not the case. Time is moving along and although he is waiting for her, he doesn't want to have to wait much longer. The narrator espouses the idea of "carpe diem" but his coy mistress doesn't seem to care, how sad!
Sad?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that time is a central component of this poem. The point about how he doesn't want to wait forever is found throughout the poem, especially in the second and third stanzas.
ReplyDeleteDr. Forman- Sad is meant in a sarcastic way
ReplyDeleteYour incorporation of time in you analysis serves completely correct. The prominence of "now" seems to be all the man cares about. It suggest that maybe it is not love he cares about.
ReplyDeleteGreat analysis of time! (Sorry I missed the tone in 'sad.')
ReplyDeleteI agree with the fact that he is going to seize the moment and use every ounce of time he has to be with her because time is limited. All limited things one needs to hold onto with great care because once that limited thing, here it is time, is gone then one can never get it back.
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