Katherine Philips addresses a bold young man who is urging a lady to marry. The speaker immediately warns him off: the lady is a “public deity,” and his courtship amounts to sacrilege. Why should a goddess reduce herself to a “petty household god”? The idea is absurd. Philips then doubles down with a cosmic dare—if the man can make the sun shine only for him in private, then he might have a case. But since that’s impossible, how could he ever hope to fix her beams, which outshine the sun itself? The argument is playfully hyperbolic, using light and divinity to suggest that such a woman belongs to the world, not to one person. Marriage would shrink her. The flattery is so over-the-top that it becomes a gentle, humorous put-down, leaving the young suitor with nowhere to stand. The mood is witty and protective, celebrating an extraordinary woman’s independence with a smile.
To One Persuading A Lady To Marriage — Summary
Forbear, bold youth; all 's heaven here, And what you do aver To others courtship may appear, 'Tis sacrilege to her. She is a public deity; And were 't not very odd She should dispose herself to be A petty household god?
First make the sun in private shine And bid the world adieu, That so he may his beams confine In compliment to you: But if of that you do despair, Think how you did amiss To strive to fix her beams which are More bright and large than his.