Formalistic Approach To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell Essay example

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

‘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.

To start off focusing on what the author is saying. To the perspective that the author is saying a lot of thing. For example when in the poem it says

To read like a writer means knowing in advanced type of writing will be assigned. This is beneficial, Bunn argues, because when reading like a writer, knowing the style assigned, allows one to look for specific techniques in writing that they could adopt in their own work. To understand how piece was written, or to look back on his architect analogy, it is important to ask questions, assessing what “construction” techniques were effective in building a text. Before reading, one should ask himself who the audience is and the author's purpose in writing. While reading the texts itself, Bunn recommends looking at the style of language used and the effectiveness of evidence as well as the parts that don’t work or are confusing. While reading like a writer and asking these questions, Bunn encourages students to look for whether aspects are appropriate and effective as well as the positive or negative effect they have on readers. Bunn, in recognizing that every word choice made in a text has a certain effect, encourages readers to look critically at that effect in order to decide what strategies work should be adopted in their own

At this point in the poem, the speaker takes a moment to explain that, beauty and the ability to enjoy life to the fullest fades with time, and that the two of them should show off or 'sport'; their love and beauty before time passes by and they loose there chance.

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

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

As noted in an article by Laura Woltag, “Connecting with texts through the study of literary devices helps readers to deconstruct these texts. Literary devices provide a conceptual framework for analysis that allows readers to interpret how these techniques affect their readings of texts” (Woltag). When reading a poem people should not read it to simply go through the motions, rather they should read it and

The Flea and To His Coy Mistress are two poems written by poets living during the Renaissance Period. To His Coy Mistress was written by Andrew Marvell and The Flea was written by John Donne. Both of these poets were well-educated 'metaphysical poets', and these poems illustrate metaphysical concerns, highly abstract and theoretical ideas, that the poets would have been interested in. Both poems are based around the same idea of trying to reason with a 'mistress' as to why they should give up their virginity to the poet.

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

According to Victor Erlich a formalist interpretive critical lens seeks to, in its simplest form, extract the meaning of the language used and omit any reference to the author or historical setting. Formalist literary criticism was formed to focus on symbolism, tone, structure, . I have chosen to use a formalist approach of interpretive criticism analyzing the following: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, George Saunders’ “Jon”, and Walt Whitman’s poem “A NOISELESS patient spider” to

The speaker in this poem seems frustrated; he delicately tries to inform his coy mistress that their death is near, and they still have not had sexual intercourse. In lines 17-33 the poem seems to lose the exaggeration sense and suddenly becomes serious. He (the speaker) reinsures his coy mistress that ³you deserve this state?(state of praise and high acknowledgment), ³But at my back I always hear, Time¹s winged chariot hurrying near? Andrew Marvell uses and interesting image in line 22 (the line mentioned above) when suggesting to his coy mistress that death is near. He substitutes the word ³death?for a more gentle, delicate term of ³Time¹s winged chariot? This term was probably used to prevent from frightening such a coy mistress. Marvell continues to involve the reader¹s imagination through unimaginable images. What do ³Deserts of vast eternity?look like? In fact, Marvell probably used such abstract images to suggest to his coy mistress that their future is indeterminable, and ³Thy beauty shall no more be found? Perhaps, beauty is what the coy mistress is so concerned with and the speaker in this case is trying to frighten her to have sex with him quicker. He continues to use intense imagery when describing to his coy mistress that even after death the ³worms shall try That long preserved virginity? The speaker now abstractly describes that holding on to your virginity for

By writing a literary analysis it allows readers to criticize and survey an author’s work. It lets the readers truly be appreciative and to be able to comprehend what the writings meaning is. Analyzing the poems, short-stories, and anything else the author has written, may show the readers what factors helped shape how they wrote. It could also determine the themes given, how the character’s act amongst each other, and how certain scenes are presented. Overall, a literally analysis is written to let the readers really dig into the information given throughout the author’s work.

The reader must participate in the making of the poem or story by digging the structure out and create coherence out of the seeming incoherence. Therefore, the search for meaning, even if it does not succeed, becomes meaningful itself.