Andrew Marvell Quotes

Andrew Marvell offers lyrical musings on love, nature and time that feel like a quiet garden stroll.

56 quotes

1. Popery is such a thing as cannot, but for want of a word to express it, be called a religion; nor is it to be mentioned with that civility which is otherwise decent to be used in speaking about the differences of human opinion about divine matters...There has now for divers years a design been carried on, to change the lawful government of England into an absolute tyranny, and to convert the established Protestant religion into downright Popery...If under his present Majesty we have as yet seen no more visible effects of the same spirit than the firing of London...it is not to be attributed to the good nature or better principles of that sect, but to the wisdom of his Holiness, who observes that we are not of late so dangerous Protestants as to deserve any special mark of his indignation, but that we may be made better use of to the wrecking of those that are of our religion, and that if he do not disturb us, there are those amongst ourselves that are leading us into a fair way of reconciliation with him.

2. Gather the flowers, but spare the buds.

3. She with her eyes my heart does bind, She with her voice might captivate my mind.

4. How should I avoid to be her slave, Whose subtle art invisibly can wreath My fetters of the very air I breath?

5. While thus he threw his Elbow round, Depopulating all the Ground, And, with his whistling Sythe, does cut Each stroke between the Earth and Root, The edged Stele by careless chance Did into his own Ankle glance; And there among the Grass fell down, by his own Sythe, the Mower mown.

6. The world in all doth but two nations bear - The good, the bad; and these mixed everywhere.

7. No creature loves an empty space; Their bodies measure out their place.

8. To make a bank was a great plot of state; Invent a shovel, and be a magistrate.

9. This indigested vomit of the Sea, Fell to the Dutch by Just Propriety.

10. The inglorious arts of peace.

11. He nothing common did or mean Upon that memorable scene, But with his keener eye The axe's edge did try.

12. But bowed his comely head Down as upon a bed.

13. So much one man can do, That does both act and know.

14. 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.

15. I would Love you ten years before the Flood, And you should, if you please, refuse Till the conversion of the Jews. My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires and more slow.

16. An age at least to every part, And the last age should show your heart.

17. But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near; And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity.

18. 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 honor turn to dust, And into ashes all my lust. The grave's a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace.

19. 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.

20. Let us roll all our strength and all Our sweetness up into one ball, And tear our pleasures with rough strife Thorough the iron gates of life: Thus, though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.

21. In busy companies of men.

22. What wondrous life in this I lead! Ripe apples drop about my head; The luscious clusters of the vine Upon my mouth do crush their wine; The nectarine and curious peach Into my hands themselves do reach; Stumbling on melons, as I pass, Ensnared with flowers, I fall on grass.

23. Meanwhile the mind from pleasure less Withdraws into its happiness; The mind, that ocean where each kind Does straight its own resemblance find; Yet it creates, transcending these, Far other worlds, and other seas; Annihilating all that's made To a green thought in a green shade.

24. Casting the body's vest aside, My soul into the boughs does glide.

25. My love is of a birth as rare As 'tis for object strange and high; It was begotten by Despair Upon Impossibility.

26. Love's whole world on us doth wheel.

27. As lines, so loves oblique may well Themselves in every angle greet; But ours so truly parallel, Though infinite, can never meet.

28. Therefore the love which us doth bind, But Fate so enviously debars, Is the conjunction of the mind, And opposition of the stars.

29. Where the remote Bermudas ride, In th' ocean's bosom unespied.

30. Orange bright, Like golden lamps in a green light.

31. And all the way, to guide their chime, With falling oars they kept the time.

32. As lines, so loves oblique, may well Themselves in every angle greet; But ours, so truly parallel, Though infinite, can never meet.

33. No white nor red was ever seen So am'rous as this lovely green. Fond lovers, cruel as their flame, Cut in these trees their mistress' name. Little, alas, they know or heed How far these beauties hers exceed! Fair trees! where s'e'er your barks I wound, No name shall but your own be found.

34. Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less, Withdraws into its happiness; The mind, that ocean where each kind Does straight its own resemblance find; Yet it creates, transcending these, Far other worlds, and other seas; Annihilating all that's made To a green thought in a green glade ... Such was that happy garden-state, ...

35. What wondrous life is this I lead! Ripe apples drop about my head.

36. How vainly men themselves amaze, / To win the palm, the oak, or bays; / And their incessant labours see / Crowned from some single herb or tree.

37. And now, when I have summed up all my store, Thinking (so I myself deceive) So rich a chaplet thence to weave As never yet the King of Glory wore, Alas! I find the serpent old, That, twining in his speckled breast, About the flowers disguised does fold With wreaths of fame and interest.

38. Though I carry always some ill-nature about me, yet it is, I hope, no more than is in this world necessary for a preservative.

39. Self-preservation, nature's first great law, all the creatures, except man, doth awe.

40. And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity.

41. Had it lived long, is would have been Lilies without, roses within.

42. Had we but world enough, and time, this coyness, lady, were no crime.

43. How could such sweet and wholesome hours be reckoned, but in herbs and flowers?

44. Time's winged chariot hurrying near.

45. I have a garden of my own, But so with roses overgrown, And lilies, that you would it guess To be a little wilderness.

46. See how the Orient dew, Shed from the bosom of the morn Into the blowing roses, Yet careless of its mansion new; For the clear region where 'twas born Round in its self encloses: And in its little globes extent, Frames as it can its native element.

47. 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. Let us roll our strength and all Our sweetness up into one ball And tear our pleasures with rough strife Through the iron gates of life: Thus, while we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.

48. Twas beyond a mortal's share To wander solitary there: Two paradises 'twere in one To live in paradise alone.

49. But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near.

50. Annihilating all that's made, To a green thought in a green shade.

51. 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. Thou by the Indian Ganges'side Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide Of Humber would complain. I would Love you ten years before the flood.

52. Let us roll all our strength, and all Our sweetness, up into one ball: And tear our pleasures with rough strife, Through the iron gates of life. Thus, though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.

53. How vainly men themselves amaze To win the palm, the oak, or bays; And their uncessant labours see Crown'd from some single herb or tree. Whose short and narrow verged shade Does prudently their toils upbraid; While all flow'rs and all trees do close To weave the garlands of repose.

54. Ye country comets, that portend No war, nor prince's funeral, Shining unto no higher end Than to presage the grasses fall. . . .

55. Art indeed is long, but life is short.

56. But Fate does iron wedges drive, And always crowds itself betwixt.