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Home » , » Andrew Marvell's "Vegetable Love"

The phrase ''Vegetable love '' occurs in Andrew Marvell's poem, ''To His Coy Mistress ''. By this phrase, the poet means a kind of love that is characterized only by growth like vegetables and plants. The poet assumes that due to his beloved's shyness,  his love will continue for thousands of years and grow slowly like a big tree vaster than an empire.

In a mood of frustration, the poet's lover expresses his deep concern at the indifference of his beloved towards love-making. Because of her puritanic reluctance in granting him sexual favors,  she shows her shyness. So the lover is trying to convince her of the Importance of utilizing the present moments in love-making and enjoying the pleasures of life through arguments. He says that her coyness or indifference to physical enjoyment would have been justified,  if they had enough space and time at their disposal,  in other words,  if their lifespan were endless. 

In that case, she might roam by the side of the Indian Ganges,  searching out pearls on its banks,  and the lover might sit by the banks of the Humber in English and complain against his beloved who does not respond to the protestations of love. The lover would be content to spend hundreds and thousands of years in admiring and adoring various parts of her body. He would patiently keep on loving her to the very end of time. If their love were such,  this would be a kind of ''vegetable love''. That means, like vegetation and plants,  this love would grow and intensify very slowly for thousands of years.

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