Essay on A Comparison Between A Coy Mistress and To The Virgins

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

fate of the lovers will be, as well as the state of his own feelings

In “To His Coy Mistress” it’s about a guy trying to conquer the love of a mistress. He tells her how much time he will wait for her and his love will endure forever as long as she is with him. Later the tone changes and it’s when carpe diem takes place. He starts to say that they don’t have all the time in the world and that one day all this will end. He points out that beauty one day will end and that she should take the advantage of being with him now that she is young and beautiful and not waiting till she’s old and wrinkly. Also he mentions her virginity and says that she should have sexual intercourse before she dies because if she dies as a virgin it’s the same thing as doing it while being alive because worms will still get inside her and eat all her remains. He wants to be with her, and would’ve waited a long time to get what he wanted, but since they don’t have all the time in the world and one day will die he wants

At initial glimpse of the poem’s title, one might easily misperceive the objective of the lyric as a whole and immediately assume the worst due to the evolution of terminology over time. When Marvell uses the lexeme ‘mistress’, he is referring to the term ‘lover’. In modern day terminology, ‘mistress’ could be interpreted as ‘an individual with whom an affair is occurring’.

The second poem by Marvell isn’t quite as flowing and pretty. Marvell writes about a man who is completely infatuated with a woman and must have sex with her before time catches up with them. The woman is shy and refuses the man, but he tells her that if he had all the time in the world, they “would sit down, and think which way / To walk, and pass our long love’s day” (Lines 3-4) and she would sit by the Indian Ganges river and collect rubies while he sang her love songs by the side of the Humber river. His love for her is temporary however, feeding only on her physical attributes, whereas in Ackerman’s poem, the love shown is precious and makes time stand still. In the next stanza he tells the woman that one day her beauty will no longer exist and that his “echoing song” (Line 27) will no longer sound in her “marble vault” (Line 26). He warns her to seize her opportunity to have sex with him right away before she dies a virgin and the worms devour her. The man in Marvell’s poem says whatever he can think of to make his coy mistress sleep with him, anticipating throughout the entire poem that she will finally give in. She never does, and the poem ends in desperation and dissatisfaction.

As the world has grown throughout the centuries, females have generally been under the domination of males. This remained culturally entrenched until the late nineteenth century, when women began to appear in public more often and also began to join alongside men in the work force. In the network of employees and employers in the emerging institution of the Parisian department store, men and women depended on each other for survival in the workplace. Such interdependence is a microcosm of the bourgeois French society during that time, which Emile Zola wrote of in The Ladies’ Paradise, the eleventh book of the Rougon-Macquart series detailing middle-class life. According to Professor Brian

In both poems there is the recurrent theme of irony. In “To His Coy Mistress” the poem’s entire first section is ironic in the sense that the speaker knows he isn’t being genuine. The speaker uses words to his advantage and we can take little of what he says to be truthful. In Line 1, “Had we but world enough, and time”. The first section of the poem is a series of hyperbolic statements meant to impress and flatter the reader but the

and carpe dime. The poem is set out into three verses; 1.-If, 2. - But

There is a similar theme running through both of the poems, in which both mistresses are refusing to partake in sexual intercourse with both of the poets. The way in which both poets present their argument is quite

Basically they both say that they may be young now, but that is not something that is going to last forever. They need to take advantage of the time that they have now because one day it won’t be so. In the poem To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time it says, “And this same flower that smiles today/ Tomorrow will be dying.” (Page 510, Lines 3-4) That says that the youth of the person today will not be so tomorrow, you only grow older. In To His Coy Mistress it says, “But at my back I always hear/ Time’s winged chariot hurrying near:” (Page 507, Lines 21-22) This is saying that time is always continuing, it doesn’t matter what you are doing, it will stop for nothing. The youth of today, will not be as it is tomorrow. So this is one of the very clear and obvious similarities between the two

Love in To His Coy Mistress and Remember On first outlook it would that To His Coy Mistress and Remember both share the topic of love. They seem to be of direct relevance to each other, whereas upon closer inspection, To His Coy Mistress does not attempt to express any emotion at all. Instead, THCM is ultimately physical and portrays a man’s desperation and lust, The persona of THCM has written this poem as a persuasion technique, with the addressee being his current girlfriend while the speaker from Remember appears to be leaving a message to her soul-mate.

Both poets use different structures to depict their love for one another. In 'Hour' Duffy uses four stanza's that describe how precious and luxurious that one hour is to the couple.Throughout the poem Duffy uses enjambment to create a smooth feeling of the hour that the couple is sharing. When Duffy declares 'no jewel hold a candle to the cuckoo spit/hungfrom the blade of grass at your ear' this alludes the enjambment but also Duffy is trying to say that even jewels aren't as beautiful as the place they are in suggesting society's modern reinterpretation of love. Whereas 'To His Coy Mistress' has three longer stanza's inituating a well developed argument to declare all the reasons why the mistress should give herself to the man. Marvell does not use enjambment like 'Hour' however does use conjunctions to develop it's argument At the start of stanza two Marvell announces 'But at my back I always hear/Time's winged chariot hurrying near' he starts the stanza with the conjuction 'But' which shows the conjuction. Also Marvell personifies time as a robber taking time away from the two lovers and starts to present a slightly bleack image of the time they have to spend together.

Andrew Marvell writes an elaborate poem that not only speaks to his coy mistress but also to the reader. He suggests to his coy mistress that time is inevitably ticking and that he (the speaker) wishes for her to act upon his wish and have a sexual relationship. Marvell simultaneously suggest to the reader that he/she must act upon their desires, to hesitate no longer and ³seize the moment?before time expires. Marvell uses a dramatic sense of imagery and exaggeration in order to relay his message to the reader and to his coy mistress. The very first two lines of the poem suggest that it would be fine for him and his mistress to have a slow and absorbing relationship but there simply isn¹t enough

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