Andrew Marvell in To His Coy Mistress and Robert Herrick in “To the Virgin to Make Much Time Embrace Their Sexuality

Marvell, Andrew. "To His Coy Mistress." The Hudson Book of Poetry: 150 Poems worth Reading. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002. 17-18.

‘To His Coy Mistress’ was written by Andrew Marvell (1621-1678). The poem is a metaphysical poem, which was mostly used in the seventeenth century and was classed as a highly intellectual type of poetry and mainly expressed the complexities of love and life; just as this poem is. In brief the poem is about seizing every opportunity in life and not caring about the past or future. In other words ‘seize the day’. The poem also explores the nature of seduction.

     The meaning of the first stanza is do the things you need to get done because tomorrow the opportunity may not exist. It states this by saying gather rosebuds while you can because that beautiful flower “tomorrow will be dying” (Herrick 385). The next stanza talks about the Sun’s life from dawn to dusk. By describing it’s race against time it is telling a person that there is not much sunlight so make the most of it To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time and Carpe Diem

Herrick was very successful in conveying the key elements of human nature by expressing them through the themes, grief, environmental influence and coming of age. The poetic techniques Herrick used to explore these themes are clearly shown throughout his verse

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

In the final stanza, he makes the reader sad as he assumes the inevitable will happen and she will die. He expresses this through metaphors such as a “black figure in her white cave”, which is a reference to the bright white hospital rooms and although he is the black figure he thinks she just sees a shadow which could be the grim reaper or even death himself, coming to end her journey. No one wants to deal with the sorrow of losing a loved one for good, as

Herrick’s poem is a warning to young, beautiful, unmarried women to make the most of their time and marry young. He does not address it to any particular woman, other than young virgins. He uses to metaphor to compare the women's youthful beauty to flowers that will begin to die as they age. Meanwhile, Marvell's poem is a bit more personal. It's actually a seduction poem and the narrator is speaking directly to his coy (shy) mistress. He is basically

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

Death is the major speaker of this poem, its persona shows how cruel and violent it can be, however she also speaks of getting everything out of life you can before death. Starting with line twenty three of the poem she begins talking about living a full life before death, "When it 's over, I want to say all my life/I was a bride married to amazement/I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms." (23-25). Being a bride married to amazement is a comparison to commitment, being with the same person every day. However in this case with a lifestyle instead. Doing amazing and memorable things every possible day you can, not letting life pass you by. This also fits perfectly with the next few lines

Although the tone is revealed and supported throughout the whole poem it is already solidified in the first stanza. The first stanza opens up what is going on and what the poem is going to be about. Just by reading the first line it explains how busy she is that even she could not stop for death. After reading that she was too busy for death we learn that death stopped for her in which she gladly joined him on his carriage. The tone is then reassured in the last stanza of this poem. Despite throughout the passage it is discovered in many ways that the speaker was satisfied with the way things went. In the last passage it says that she can remember the day like it was yesterday.

The Poem begins with a personification of death as "kindly" (3). By doing this, the speaker introduces a portrayal on death that might have conflictions. Most of the times, death has a negative connotation. Whether it is an inevitable or tragic view, it opposes to what is seen in the poem. The speaker accepts death as a friendly invitation when the time is right, rather than something that is bound to happen. The speaker then joins immortality, personified as a passenger in a carriage. Immortality simply cannot be a passenger as it is a non-living thing. The reasoning for this could be that immortality ties together the link between the speaker and death, ultimately introducing the voyage to come. The first stanza sets a precedent of a meter to follow throughout most of the poem. The first line contains eight

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

The participants do not engage in amateurish relations, but instead engage in the activity of sex with expertise. The poem’s descriptions label them as being individuals worthy of admiration.

‘To His Coy Mistress’ Is a love poem by Andrew Marvel. The poem is ‘carpe diem’ which translates to seize the day, this means the poem does not take its time its blunt and straight to the point. The poem contains a thesis, antithesis and synthesis, the main argument points of the poem. The poem is split into three stanza’s which are used to persuade the woman to give up her virginity before her beauty dies. It is a conventional poem for its time in the 17th century.

Herbert and Herrick’s poems The Collar and To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time, portray a sense of freedom and time. In Herbert’s poem The Collar, the speaker wants to enjoy life without any religious acts. For instance, he wants to pick fruits and wear garlands; however, the speaker feels like a captive to his devotion to the Lord. He wants to enjoy life, for he is afraid of disobeying God. The title The Collar indicates a “slave of God”. One can assume that Herbert’s dedication to God’s worship prevents him from gaining freedom and time to a free world. Herrick’s poem To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time, the speaker compares nature’s aspects to time. For example, he compares blooming flowers to