Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/To His Coy Mistress

To_His_Coy_Mistress

This is utter trite nonsense. An encyclopaedic amateur summary of a canonical poem? I think not.--[[User:HamYoyo|HamYoyo (Talk)]] 10:04, Jun 1, 2004 (UTC)

• Keep. It's a very famous poem, quite worth of an article of its own. What's there is an OK start, certainly not "nonsense." I like the fact that the article references allusions in other poems. The fact that other works allude to this poem is a very nice NPOV bit of evidence that this poem is notable enough to deserve an article. Yes, the article could certainly be improved. The paraphrases/translations/whatever should be buttressed by quoting the relevant parts of the poem to which they refer. I don't like the way in which, after "stripping the poem of all poetry" they then reclothe it in somethat tacky garb, i.e. the restatement is too creative. "So let's go fast for as long as we are still alive" is both evasive and clumsy, Marvell is talking about amour lovemaking coitus, not track-and-field. The references to those other poems need to be explained (what the heck is The Garden?). (BTW Archibald MacLeish wrote a poem entitled You, Andrew Marvell, another reference to the poem, which could also be included, and there are probably many more.) Might throw in some stuff about similar sentiments expressed in other famous writings, e.g Ecclesiastes and the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. and The article should document the very important fact that quoting this poem is seldom, if ever effective as a seduction strategy—at least, it never was for me.. Dpbsmith 12:38, 1 Jun 2004 (UTC)
• Keep. Perhaps its style could be more encyclopedic, but I thought it was quite informative. I can't judge how important this poem is in English lit. circles, but it seems to have been influential. -- Solipsist 13:32, 1 Jun 2004 (UTC)
• Keep. You yourself say its "a canonical poem". The answer is to FIX (as in edit, add to, expand) the "amateur trite nonsense", not delete it. Thesteve 13:54, 1 Jun 2004 (UTC)
  • Yes, okay, keep. The page has been improved already. Any further discussion reverted to Talk:To_His_Coy_Mistress.--[[User:HamYoyo|HamYoyo (Talk)]] 14:34, Jun 1, 2004 (UTC)

• Edit, but keep. The poem is a cornerstone, and there are monographs upon monographs written on it. It's pretty much the most important poem of the Interregnum that John Milton didn't write. It absolutely demands a first class article, though. Geogre 18:25, 1 Jun 2004 (UTC) (an 18th c. Brit Lit person)

• It's a very important poem. Perhaps someone could just edit the page, but it certainly should not be deleted. --Tothebarricades.tk 20:04, 1 Jun 2004 (UTC)

As noted by [[User:HamYoyo|HamYoyo (Talk)]] it has been improved utterly beyond recognition and I think is no longer in danger of deletion, thanks to Geogre and several others. Dpbsmith 20:25, 2 Jun 2004 (UTC)