The poem commences with the speaker's desire of an ideal situation where time is unlimited. He divulges into detailed explanation of how he would treat his lover in this ideal world. He states that if he had unlimited time, the show of modesty would not bother him. He would take his time to savor every moment in praising his lover's lovely traits. He fantasizes his lover picking rubies in the Ganges river of India while he could write songs by the Humber river in England. He could propose to her unceasingly and she could refuse him to the very end and it wouldn't bother him in the least. He would be willing to devote multiple epochs admiring the comely body parts of his lover; hundred years to the eyes, two body parts of his lover; hundred years to the eyes, two hundred to each each breast and so on. He assures her that she is worth all this and she shouldn't settle for less.
The second stanza returns the speaker to the real world of space and time. He is aware that the fleeting time troubles him subconsciously. He warns that nobody can cheat time and her beauty will fall prey to this time, and she won't be able to hear his song in her grave. He uses vivid imagery and sonic cue to create a rather revolting imagery of worms desecrating her long preserved virginity. Perhaps he tries to persuade his lover by scaring her through feebleness of human life and rejecting any idea of an afterlife. In the third stanza, he shows his hand driving home the conclusion. He resorts to enormous flattery as the final weapon to achieve his heart's desire. He urges his lover to immediately commence not conjugal but sexual relationship as the time is fleeting every moment, hence the need for urgency. Here he uses myriads of metaphors and similes to strengthen his argument and fulfill his end. He proposes that even though it is impossible to cheat the villain that is time, they can still make the most of the situation by eliminating delay.
It is quite clear that the speaker has dedicated this poem to his lover not just merely to express his feelings towards her but to illicit a reaction from her. In many words he tries his utmost to persuade her by use of pretty words and finally revealing his desire to bed her. He sets up the premise by creating a hypothetical world to elaborate his devotion towards her and the lengths he is prepared to go if only time wasn't against him. He illustrates time as the main antagonistic force by personifying him by capitalizing "Time" and as it arrives in its "winged chariot". This stanza also uses hyperbole to elaborate on his obsession with her as his love would grow "vaster than empires" which is of course a figure of speech. Similarly he compares this love to a vegetable. Another example of hyperbole is when he declares that he would spend millenniums adoring her different body parts.
Since this fantasy is not possible and time looms over all out head, he pictures a grip picture, quite opposite to the previous one. For instance, "Deserts of vast eternity" and worms devouring her dead body in her "marble vault" i.e. grave. This use of metaphor seems to make this process of death unearthly and detached from life. It is to be noted that some rhymes are visual in this part as if the poet trips himself and disrupts the rhythm of the poem. For instance "lie-eternity" and "try-virginity" do not rhyme but ends with 'y'. He warns that the loneliness of grave will be nothing like solitude and will offer no comfort. Finally, he lavishes his lover with colorful words, metaphors and similes to drive his point home. For example, he compares her skin to morning dew using a simile and he calls her to engage in sex "like amorous birds of prey". Similarly metaphors like "instant fires" meaning his overwhelming passion. Even though he does not have power to alter time, he proposes to make most out of the situation.
The poem has a regular rhyme scheme with most end rhymes rhyming every second line with preceding one. Hence the rhyme scheme can be observed as AABBCCDD... This gives the poem a melodious tone which is further bolstered by a uniform meter. Most of the lines stick to an iambic tetrameter. The poet utilizes enjambments freely which serves in facilitating his ask for urgency. Furthermore, he uses caesura liberally which provides an effect akin to the speaker literally skipping their heartbeat. Besides this, Marvell has used various poetic devices like metaphors. For instance, "Let us roll all our strength and all/Our sweetness up into one ball" means the physical embrace during sex. Similarly figurative language is used such as Ganges that might indicate holiness and purity of his intentions or allusions to biblical elements like the flood and conversion of Jews in the end times. Marvell also deploys alliteration to emphasize certain points such as "An age at last to every part", "My echoing song; then worms shall try".
The form of this poem does not strictly adhere to the traditional forms. However it is to be noted that the ideas are presented in a way of a sonnet where in the problem of the issue is introduced i the first part and the following part formulates a resolution.
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