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Subject:
Words of a poem.
Category: Arts and Entertainment > Books and Literature Asked by: quitega-ga List Price: $2.50 |
Posted:
17 May 2004 06:18 PDT
Expires: 16 Jun 2004 06:18 PDT Question ID: 347507 |
There is a famous line in a famous poem (I think one can safely call it a poem) which runs ........ "and [or 'but'] at my back I hear time's winged chariots drawing near" ......... All I want is the complete text and the name of the author. I am surprised that an ordinary advanced Google produces only 1, 2 or 3 references (depending on how I frame the search). |
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Subject:
Re: Words of a poem.
Answered By: pinkfreud-ga on 17 May 2004 13:25 PDT Rated: ![]() |
Your poem is "To His Coy Mistress," by Andrew Marvell. The reason you were not able to find many online references is because search engines are very literal, and a paraphrase can bamboozle them. The exact wording of the line is "But at my back I always hear / Time's winged chariot hurrying near." Here is the poem in its entirety: To his Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell 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. For, lady, you deserve this state, Nor would I love at lower rate. 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 preserv'd 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, And while thy willing soul transpires At every pore with instant fires, Now let us sport us while we may; And now, like am'rous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour, Than languish in his slow-chapp'd power. Let us roll all our strength, and all Our sweetness, up into one ball; And tear our pleasures with rough strife Thorough the iron gates of life. Thus, though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run. Luminarium: To His Coy Mistress http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/marvell/coy.htm Google search strategy: Google Web Search: "time's winged OR wingèd chariot" ://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=%22time%27s+winged+OR+wing%C3%A8d+chariot I hope this helps. If anything is unclear or incomplete, please request clarification; I'll be glad to offer further assistance before you rate my answer. Best regards, pinkfreud |
quitega-ga
rated this answer:![]() Anyone who awards any service - anywhere - with five stars, and immediately suggests how to make improvements would be a ripe nut. BUT if Google programmers can find a way of insinuating dedicated detection for "Literature, Poetry, and Quotations" [in Advanced Search fields] it really would be great! I guess it would "simply" mean tagging all such online material and using a less bamboozling searchlight. A laser, perhaps? :-) Many thanks. <br> Andrew Marvell indeed! It is a good feeling to read something once again after a lapse of half a century - like meeting a very long lost friend. Many thanks to you, pinkfreud-ga! Love the name! You don't need no ejjercation - but you certainly ain't just a bwick in de war! Oh dear. Damn those chariots! (I *thought* the word was hurrying and seem to remember my English master rambling on about it lending a touch of onomatopoeia to help one hear the chariots. In retrospect, I must have felt my teacher - the serendipitously named Mr. Maybe, who always smelled faintly of Dettol - an Englishman teaching in Australia in the early 50s. - a strange man with an even stranger wife - immediately became more interested in the concept of onomatopoeia than in the Mr. Marvell's Mistress. Pinkfreud! Hah! Love it. BTW it seems I am registered here (don't remember doing it) with another '-ga' suffixed username. I saw it just now. At first glance, I really couldn't make head nor tail of it. Quitega-ga. It threw me with its somewhat Aztec features and only after twigging your own ga-name did I recall . . . after a mere 50 years . . . that I am indeed quite ga-ga! :-) |
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Subject:
Re: Words of a poem.
From: pinkfreud-ga on 17 May 2004 19:17 PDT |
Many thanks for the five stars and the tip! I, too, am quite ga-ga after more than 50 years. I believe my ga-gariousness is probably due to "hardening of the smarteries." Best, pinkfreud |
Subject:
Re: Words of a poem.
From: quitega-ga on 17 May 2004 21:24 PDT |
My God what a run-around. Password? What password? Had to go and find out how to change it in the end. All of it, in fact. I began by trying to find a way of doing what I am now doing - adding a comment. A t one stage of the game I came to that page where you have to sign your life away and donate millions to geniuses who might well live better on bread and cheese and vinho da meja in a converted Algarve windmill. It's fun. Try it! Anyway . . . I just want to let you know - I blush - that only *after* writing earlier did I see that EVERYONE in these yer partz has a name with a "-ga" suffix, which is terrible. Why? Well, I can't remember whether - at the time I chose the extraordinary - even for me - username "Quitega" - whether, at that time, I already knew that it would be suffixed with a "ga" - or not! Serendipity? Prescience? I worked out - quite quickly in this past hour - with time's winged charriots hurrying, flurrying, snorting, flapping and currying by in an vast endless hordes - that the suffix stands for Google Answers. I must admit, though, that I did waste a nanosecond or two pondering if it was "ga" as in Garfield or "ga" as in "hay". =(:-o I managed - before having to change my password for arcane Googlic reasons - to see your sort of "bio". You've answered something like 1,000 questions, I think it was, and only had to make five refunds. I'd give anything to know the details! :-) Pleeeeeeaaaaasssse?! Thanks for hardening of the smarteries. First time! HILARIOUS! Beats "old-timers" into a cocked hat. Original? I wouldn'r be surprised. Thanks again. TTFN. John. |
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