Appeal In To His Coy Mistress

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

    The Wife of Bath's extraordinary prologue gives the reader a dose of what is sometimes missing in early male-written literature: glimpses of female subjectivity. Women in medieval literature are often silent and passive, to the extent that cuckolding is often seen as something one man (the adulterer) does to another (the husband). Eve Sedgwick argues in Between Men that in many literary representations, women are playing pieces or playing fields in struggles between male players. By default it seems, male writers cannot help but create shallow constructions of women; heroism occurs in male spheres of activity, while the wives and daughters make the background, and

‘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.

While on the way to venerate Saint Thomas Becket’s remains, the entertainment of Chaucer’s Canterbury pilgrims falls upon the requiting of stories between the different estates. However, this requiting quickly turns malicious, the Host’s simple proposition evolving into an aggressive show of social dominance that includes the boasting of both literal and metaphorical rape. The normalization (or, borderline reverence) of aggressive manliness contributes to the creation of both rape culture and compulsory heterosexuality. Consequently, when a man does not dominate a woman—or, does not use his masculinity to humiliate another man—he is seen as weak or effeminate, subsequently placing his sexuality under scrutiny. Such is the motive behind John and Aleyn’s rape of the miller’s wife and daughter—to make Symkin seem weak, and to gain a reputation of superior masculinity. Thus,

Lucy lectures Eliza on her “coquettish” ways and suggests that she be cautious in her attempt to rebel (7). However, Eliza does not heed Lucy’s advice and continues her quest for her ideal husband.

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem The Canterbury Tales a young Chaucer tells of the people he meets on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Thomas Beckett in Canterbury. One of the most vivacious characters on the pilgrimage is The Wife of Bath. Both the Wife of Bath’s prologue and tale share a common theme of a woman’s control in a relationship with a man. The Wife of Bath and the old hag in her tale share a similar perspective on what women want most in life. In the prologue and tale the reader is exposed to the idea that what women most desire in life is to have control over their husbands and lovers. This tale and its prologue are linked through the way that Dame Alice, the Wife of Bath, fashions the old hag in her tale after herself.

A true libertine of the Restoration Era, John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester – better known as his literary persona Rochester – is recognized for his poetry that often breaks barriers and social conventions in obscene ways. One such poem that is particularly explicit, some might even say pornographic, is entitled “A Ramble in St. James’s Park.” Including the sex, alcohol, and debauchery that is so characteristic of Rochester, this poem creates a unique balance between depravity of content and elegance of literary form. While there is much evidence that Rochester represents sex explicitly with obscene and shocking language in “A Ramble in St. James’s Park” for the purpose of satirizing both himself and contemporary love poems, I will argue that in doing so, he also makes a broader statement regarding the tension between the public and private spheres of sexuality, specifically representing female sexuality in the public sphere and erotic female bodies as communal property; finally, the lewd language hints at an anxiety about the power of the feminine over men, thus queering gender roles by becoming the abject feminine.

“It so happened that this King Arthur had in his house a lusty bachelor.” (Chaucer Wife Of Bath 339). In Chaucer's combination of poetry, he slowly manifests the word “lust”. In his writings, many of the characters are represented as being lustful. They are desiring sexual pleasures that do not belong in their hearts. Culture in Chaucer’s time encouraged such desires by bragging about their love life outside of marriage, while also mocking the people that are sworn to chastity. In today’s culture lust remains the same. People today promote the

Marvell begins the conceit by introducing mankind as the instigator of corruption. “Luxurious man, to bring his vice in use, / Did after him the world seduce” (1-2). The use of the word “man,” instead of “mankind,” begins the characterization of the male, or the patriarchy as the owner of the brothel, as well as the patrons that keep it in business. Additionally, the speaker uses very charged, sexual language, such as “vice” and “seduction” to describe how humans are enchanted by nature’s beauty. At the time of writing, in 16th century England, the act of a man visiting a brothel would have been considered a “vice,” or something that generally considered sinful or negative. However, the act is nonetheless accepted by society as something normal.

“The courtly lady…possesses a curiously hybrid gender. While maintaining stereotypically female sexuality, she also holds, in principle at least, the status of a feudal lord.” Burns’ statement insinuates a reversal of power dynamics between man and woman in the courtly love lyric, implying that the woman’s stereotypical beauty and sexuality in courtship, is a gateway to subverting and overpowering the lovesick male, making her a superior lord. The Amour Courtois lyric is deemed inconsistent with the representation of woman as an empowered “feudal lord” due to the sheer objectification of femininity and beauty. Poets such as Geoffrey Chaucer and William Dunbar commend a woman’s aesthetic appeal or satirise the lack of it, thus elevating medieval misogynistic expectations of physical beauty as a feminine necessity that objectifies women under the control of man’s advances. Throughout courtly love lyrics female beauty is a purely frivolous and superficial trait lacking predominant depth, to render woman as a “lord” would be poetically conflicting as the only power exemplified by female subjects in courtship is through the idolisation and sexual lust of the male devotee.

In the short story, The Old Chevalier by Isak Dinsen, the male protagonist, Baron von Brackel reflects on his past sexual encounters with two women whose personalities are extremely different from one another. In many novels, short stories and comics authors would create two women as “polar opposites” for a man’s sexual and/or possessive gaze, which is evident in the text. In order to understand, why a man may be attracted to different character traits in women, I will examine The Baron’s attraction to Nathalie and The Mistress by looking at how literary works men portray women, what they find attractive and the fulfilment that men seek from a woman.

Chaucer breaks the topic of sex into two basic parts: carnality and romanticism. Although carnal love is a controversial topic, Chaucer dives into the subject by creating characters with ferocious appetites for sex and the means to accommodate their desires. Whereas, to address romanticism, he relies heavily on

To his Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell is about a man's lust for a woman. The narrator uses terms like coy to describe his mistress. He also describes sex by using the word ball. The narrator also compares their love to a vegetable that is steadily growing. The narrator uses words wisely in his appeal to his lover.

In her Poem “An Answer to a love-letter,” Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1921) says, “How vile is man! how I detest their ways/ Of artful falsehood, and designing praise!” Here Lady Mary is trying to persuade her readers that men are ruthless, sex driven, soothsayers that are only interested in self-satisfaction and what is new. The way in which lady Mary tries to persuade her readers is by exposing the “art “of man’s deceitful ways. In this piece, Lady Mary appears convinced herself that women will soon be able to see beyond men’s wicked ways and reminds women that they are a “beauteous bride” deserving to be treated as such.

During the nineteenth century people were under a strict patriarchal rule, especially the women. In those times, women were seen as ornaments “a momentary toy of passion” to the society and properties to be traded within marriage, therefore, Victorian moralists repressed female sexuality. As a result, for a woman to admit she even had sexual desires was considered sinful, let alone acting on those desires - like Porphyria did - was borderline criminal. Moreover, when Porphyria “glided in” she “untied her hat and let her damp hair fall”. Victorian moralists referred to female fornicators as ‘fallen’ women. Additionally, committing adultery was also a sin as it went against one of the Ten Commandments “Thou shall not commit adultery”, therefore, Porphyria ‘letting her hair fall’ could symbolise the boundaries she had willingly chosen to overstep by coming to meet her lover.