...and roll like a hoop. Hodgart quoted these lines from Andrew Marvell's poem "To His Coy Mistress": Let us roll all our strength, and all Our sweetness,...with rough strife, Through the iron gates of Life. "I don't quite know what's going on here," Hodgart adds. Chandler Davis supplemented my list of imaginary...

...And now, like amorous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour Than languish in his slow-chapt power. Let us roll all our strength, and all Our sweetness,...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...

...like am'rous birds of prey, Rather at once our Time devour Than languish in his slow-chapt4 pow'r. Let us roll all our Strength, and all Our sweetness,...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...

...the exclamation point, this modern version of a traditional persuasion to love — compare Marvell's "Let us roll all our strength and all/ Our sweetness up into one ball" — is too troubled, doubtful, frightened to be sustained: Ah, love, let us be true To one another!...

...now, like amorous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour, 40 Than languish in his slow-chapped power. Let us roll all our strength, and all Our sweetness,...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...

...poet, Andrew Marvell, uses the word in this way in his erotically-charged poem, "To His Coy Mistress": Let us roll all our strength, and all Our sweetness,...with rough strife, Through the iron gates of life. The ball in idioms such as "We're having a ball!" is unrelated to the copulation ball. That idiom derives...

...And now, like amorous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour Than languish in his slow-chapt power. Let us roll all our strength and all Our sweetness...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...

...That is not it, at all." This crucial stanza juxtaposes references to Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" ("Let us roll all our strength and all / Our sweetness up into one ball") and the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead, setting the two allusions in ironic counterpoint to...

...time works its destructive power: Rather at once our time devour, Than languish in his slow-chapped power. Let us roll all our strength, and all Our sweetness, up into one ball . . . Thus, though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run. (lines 39-42, 45-46)...

...Saint John the Baptist (Mark 6:17-29). 8. To have squeezed . . .: cf. Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress": "Let us roll all our strength and all / Our sweetness up into one ball . . ." 9. Lazarus: resurrected; see John 11:1-44. 10. progress: "A state journey made by a royal or...