Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress," and Archibald MacLeish's "You, Andrew Marvell," deliver more or less the same concept to its audience, but through very different approaches.
Both poems deal with the idea of enjoying life before it gets to be to late and to take in every moment as it doesn't last for forever. MacLeish tackles this through nature and its very limited purity. "Upon those under lands the vast/ and ever climbing shadow grow." Unfortunately the Earth is ever so slowly deteriorating and it is only a matter of time before something or someone gets the best of Mother Nature, or even as humans that we lose our lives before we can fully appreciate the valve of Earth. On a less wholesome note, Marvell elaborates on sex, with his mistress. While this topic is a bit unconventional, it works. Marvell is saying that they don't have forever so if they are going to do it, they best get to doin it because "rather at once our time devour." At any moments notice either of them could drop dead. I think that in everyone's life there are moments that we realize just how valuable and fragile life is and that we take it for granite far too much. I have seen many young and healthy people get injured and their life changes completely in a matter of seconds, and unfortunately most people don't realize how easy it is to lose everything.
What connection do you make between the limited purity of nature and the "ever climbing shadow?" I agree that they are both touching on the fragility of life, though Marvell is uses this knowledge to persuade while MacLeish contemplates on the brevity of our place/time on the planet.
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