"To His Coy Mistress" is a poem where the author expresses his sadness at the thought of quickly passing time and the shortness of life. The author addresses his thoughts to a girl who is unwilling to give up her virginity. The argument the author has in the poem is one that is persuasive, relating to the passage of time and the fading of earthly pleasures. Marvell uses three persuasive ways to convince his lady. These three ways can be divided up into stages whereas stages one he uses flattery, stage two he uses fear of death, and the third stage uses passion. In a way the author is saying "carpe diem" or seize the day, he believes that they should seize the day because of time.
Marvell starting in line 1 is telling his lady what they could achieve in their relationship if they had plenty of time. Also referring to line 1, he is saying "Hurry up! You"re acting as if we have all the time in the world" and "If we had all the time in the world her shyness wouldn't matter". In lines 5-6 he is saying that if she chooses to remain a virgin he would sit by the River Humber and sing songs complaining about their love. Marvell goes on in the next few lines saying he would wait through historical time, which was at the time between Noah's flood and the conversion of the Jews, he would fill this time with his love and dividing it up into periods to adore each part of her. This is seen in lines 13- 18 as he gives flattering details of his love and at the end of this process he would revealed that he heart is her very being. He also assures her that she deserves this treatment.
Marvell, starting with line 21 and ending with line 32, argues the fact humanity does not have the kind of time span that he imagined in the lines 13-18. Instead of having centuries to wait for lady, he tells her that he hears "time's winged chariot" hurrying close behind him. From this metaphor he is saying that time is fast.