"To His Coy Mistress"

"To His Coy Mistress" or "To His Shy Girlfriend" in today's terms, is a poem about a man wanting a woman who is very shy and still a virgin. The man tries to convince this woman to have him by telling her that if they had an eternity he would treat her right. But, since life is not an eternity, the man just wants to get with her. The man also uses the woman's virginity against her by saying that if she doesn't have sex with him, then she's going to die and the worms are going to get her; "Thy beauty shall no more be found, Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound My echoing song; then worms shall try." This part of the poem is basically saying, your beauty will not last forever and if you wait forever to lose your virginity, then you will die and the worms will try to take it. When translated into modern terms, this poem can be seen as very comical and also displays a man whom nowadays would be considered a "player".