Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress Essay

As Wendy Martin says “the poem leaves the reader with painful impression of a woman in her mid-fifties, who having lost her domestic comforts is left to struggle with despair. Although her loss is mitigated by the promise of the greater rewards of heaven, the experience is deeply tragic.” (75)

5. The image of the sun appears in both “To the Virgins” (line 5) and “To His Coy Mistress” (line 45). How does each poet use the reference to the sun? How would you paraphrase the last two lines of Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress”?

Comparing Andrew Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress and Robert Herrick’s To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

Within To His Coy Mistress we see the manipulation in which the speaker uses for his own benefit through the personification of time, ‘Had we but World enough and Time’ expressing, through the personification of ‘Time’, how he would love the potential lover and wouldn’t mind her initial rejection if time was an endless matter. This attempt of flattery, seen

The narrator exaggerates how many years he would spend admiring her body if he had the opportunity to live that long. Hyperboles are used throughout the poem, not only when the speaker discusses the little amount of time he has to pursue her, but also during the time he overstates her beauty and virginity rotting away and turning to dust. The narrator then informs her that the only way to make use of the time the two have is to sport “like amorous birds of prey”, in other words, have sexual intercourse (Marvell,

He uses this in the poem to give it rhythm to engage the reader and

The poem is an example of a carpe diem poem - 'carpe diem' is Latin

Furthermore, Marvell uses the second stanza, not so discreetly, to further his argument. In a way, the first stanza served as this hypothetical version of life since the speaker describes how much he loves his mistress and how things would be going even better for them if they had more time, but then Marvell strategically makes use of the second stanza of the poem, as well, as the turn of the poem. As readers, we find out that although the speaker loves his mistress so much, the speaker and his mistress don’t have much more time. The speaker tells his mistress that “Time’s winged chariot hurrying near” (22), implying that life is short and that they only have so much time to live, while they have “deserts of vast eternity” (24), or forever

The title "To His Coy Mistress" implies a certain falseness as the word coy is almost an insincere form of modest, it indicates that this mistress were indeed not coy rather falsely coy in order to gain assurance of his feelings towards her for her own validation. The first line "Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness lady were no crime." introduces the theme of time and lack of a crucial theme in the poem, the lover also accuses this coyness of being criminal by saying "HAD we but world enough and time, this coyness lady were no crime" implying that they do not have time therefore this coyness is a crime, this is clever use of irony which is also a constant theme throughout the poem. Marvell also uses soft alliteration such as "long loves" to lull the reader into believing his intentions honourable, he uses flattery all throughout the first section of the poem though he changes his tactics throughout the poem. The lover tries to create the image of himself as a committed patient lover with promises of waiting for her if she should travel to the "Indian Ganges" without complaint and

Andrew Marvell's elaborate sixteenth century carpe diem poem, 'To His Coy Mistress', not only speaks to his coy mistress, but also to the reader. Marvell's suggests to his coy mistress that time is inevitably rapidly progressing and for this he wishes for her to reciprocate his desires and to initiate a sexual relationship. Marvell simultaneously suggests to the reader that he or she should act upon their desires as well, to hesitate no longer and seize the moment before time, and ultimately life, expires. Marvell makes use of allusion, metaphor, and grand imagery in order to convey a mood of majestic endurance and innovatively explicate the carpe diem motif.

In the poem, symbolism is used countless times to promote the carpe diem theme progressively till the end. The simple mentions such as the “Indian Ganges,” and “rubies” together symbolize imperialism (Marvell, line 5). This back tracts to when the colonists would rob rubies from India suggesting the mistress is stealing sex from the speaker by not letting have his way (Varsha Chitnis & Danaya Wright). This type of obstacle really has no reason for being so complicated according to the speaker and that the mistress should be more lose not similar to the colonists. It is obvious the speaker has intense feelings to have sexual intercourse with her as he has depicted it so.

The speaker in Andrew Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress'; is a man who is addressing a silent listener, who happens to be his mistress. In this dramatic monologue the speaker tries to explain his feelings to his mistress. The speaker uses many allusions to empires and other objects, events and ideas that are not directly related to his feelings, in order to explain how he feels. He uses these allusions to exaggerate his feelings in order to clearly show them. After reading over the poem once, you get a sense of what the speaker is feeling. Upon further analysis of the poem you realize that the allusions used in the poem, are in fact, what makes this poem so interesting.

happens to one of them or if one of them dies. He says he wants them

In the first stage of the poem he uses time, as he flatters the Coy

On the same place where he is, he wrote the poem “To his Coy Mistress”. This poem focuses on the attitude of a man in seducing a woman. The man in the poem use metaphorical words to make his lover tempted to him. Marvell sees himself in the male character. That