This stanza is made melancholy through careful references to death (the eternal footman who holds his cloaks) and even, in this allusion to getting your head chopped off simply because a girl asked for it. The man whose head came off was the prophet John the Baptist, and the girl was Salome, who, in the Bible, had no reason to want his head on a platter. However, Oscar Wilde gave reason to Salome's request by writing a book in which Salome is in love with John the Baptist, but he does not love her in return due to his love of God and fear of sins of the flesh. The reference to Oscar Wilde is perhaps more important due to the overarching theme in this poem that the lovers cannot love for some reason. http://www.mrbauld.com/exeliopru.html

This is an allusion to a very old book called Works and Days by a Greek writer named Hesiod. (Link Text In the book, the idea of hard work and labor is reinforced. This is in sharp contrast to the rest of the poem, which has a lackadaisical feeling to it. Specific to this stanza, the notion of "there will be time" is repeated, giving the reader a sense that the narrator is coaxing his coy woman into relaxing with him and taking their time to be together in peace. [http://www.ancient-literature.com/greece_hesiod_works.html]