Had we but World enough, and time
-- Speaker (Line 1)

Importance: In this famous first line of the poem, the speaker introduces the counterfactual which defines the first stanza. He expresses a desire for an alternate existence where he and his mistress had the entire world at their command, and all the time they wanted. Specifically, he longs for "enough" – a sufficiency of space and time for them to relax (1). However, as the poem will later argue, time is the one thing we mortal beings never have enough of.

I would love you ten years before the Flood
-- Speaker (Lines 7 – 8)

Importance: This line is an encapsulation of the intensity of the speaker's love. The Flood refers to the Biblical flood which required Noah to build an Ark so that humanity could survive – a subtle reminder of mortality and of the terrible power of the universe to wipe away, not only life, but all memory of it in...