Andrew Marvell's poem "To His Coy Mistress" consists of three stages. Each stanza's stage describes the speaker's advances to his timid mistress. Marvell's use of images clearly depicts the impatient yet loving nature of the speaker. The first stage tells of the speaker's love to his mistress in a timeless universe, the second describes his impatience because of time's existence, and the third stage expresses the speaker's urgency to his mistress to return his love before time spoils their relationship.

The first stage of Marvell's persuasion to his mistress is presented in the first stanza. The speaker uses hyperbole throughout the stanza to explain how he would pursue his mistress impatiently for eternity if there were no time. Lines 8-10 allude to the Bible when the speaker says, "I would/ love you ten years before the Flood, / and you should, if you please, refuse/ Till the conversion of...