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10

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20

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30

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40

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,

And you should, if you please, refuse

Till the conversion of the Jews.

My vegetable love should grow

Vaster than empires, and more slow;

An hundred years should go to praise

Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze;

Two hundred to adore each breast,

But thirty thousand to the rest;

An age at least to every part,

And the last age should show your heart.[…]

But at my back I always hear

Time's winged chariot hurrying near;

And yonder all before us lie

Deserts of vast eternity.

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 honour turn to dust,

And into ashes all my lust

The grave 's a fine and private place,

But none, I think, do there embrace.

Now therefore, while the youthful hue

Sits on thy skin like morning dew, […]

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-chapt power.

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.

1. man talking to his mistress, main message, seize the day - carpe diem!
2. poem written in couplets
3. there are three parts:

 * If they had time he would spend ages on describing her beauty
 * But: we don't have enough time, as we must die and her beauty and his desire will not last
 * So let's use the time and live and love now