This is a country house poem, and here Marvell plays with the idea that it’s as much a house as a poem, with all the stanzas (from the Italian for “room”) as…rooms.

Situating the whole poem within a “sober frame” also alludes to the virtuous moderation of Lord Fairfax, whom Marvell credits with leading a vita sobria.

The New World was often described as “virgin territory,” ripe and ready to be defiled by white European men

This is open to interpretation. It is a compliment to her, an indication of her special nature; exotic, newly discovered. The exclamatory‘O’ suggests wonder and adoration.

But also Donne sees it as his right to have his way with his lover, describing her as unclaimed land that he has liberty to appropriate. In modern terms he might be described critically as a coloniser.

When read aloud this part of the poem. The hyperbole may be just exaggeration; a matter of seduction. And yet, there is a sense of adoration as well, suggesting he loves this woman.

And here is the canonization. The grandest of people throughout the land will long for ‘a pattern’, a replication, what we might call a role model, of the love the poet and his lover enjoy.

Just a touch of hyperbole, but nonetheless satisfying and enjoyable in its intellectual brilliance.