Poem Analysis On His Coy Mistress By Andrew Marvell

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.

To his Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell, he revealed the endeavors of a man towards demanding his sweetheart's warmth and declines of the unknown mistress to lay down with the honorable man being referred to, and the refined man's reaction is to disclose to her that, if had he enough time, he could spend whole hundreds of years respecting her excellence and her beauty; be that as it may, human life is short and tomorrow is not guarantee he doesn't have this time, thus they ought to appreciate each other now while regardless they can, as nobody in death can grasp or feel delight. In his tones of adoration and slavishness reflect how the suiter guarantees that if the time stopped he would passionately worship each component of his coy mistress, however since time wait for no man he utilizes this guarantees to lure in his fancy woman to make love with him.

In Andrew Marvell’s poem, “To His Coy Mistress”, the speaker argues that if he and the woman he is addressing had an infinite amount of time together, there would be no rush to be together. However, since they are not immortal and only human, they cannot be together forever and only have what is offered to them: the present moment. The speaker tries to convince the woman to “seize the day” and to indulge in the physical aspect of their relationship before marriage. Marvell's argument is that instead of categorizing our lives based on and fretting about what should be done in the present versus what should be done in the future, people should cherish every moment as it comes. In order to convey this theme, Marvell utilizes a nonuniform scheme

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 poem “To My Coy Mistress” author Andrew Marvell try to convince a young lady to give him her virginity. Marvell illustrates the themes of time, love, lust, men and women. In his pursuit of his mistress Marvell uses different tones throughout the story as well as figurative language to connect to the readers . Time is a theme that is illustrated throughout the poem, and amount of time Marvell wants to spend with his mistress loving her, as well as courting her. The narrator of the story puts a time limit for the mistress to be indecisive with her feelings.

Sex and lust have changed greatly over time, especially since the late 1600s. In the poem, “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell the relationship between sex and time is rather passionate, but shifts as Marvell metaphorically describes time. The horrifying tone put on the metaphors, allusions, and the hyperboles play an important role in the understanding of Marvell’s meaning on sex and lust of the speaker’s lady over time. The idea that each sex act shortened someone’s life has come a long way. On the other hand it is believed that the message Marvell was trying to address was how the cold lady threatened the speakers love for her. Another idea is that the poem is based on death, and how everything will one day die, rather than the passionate approach. I will prove how these 2 ideas are wrong.

It was not in fashion to write poems to one’s wife. It could even be debated whether love could ever have a place in marriage; the typical situation in which a ‘courtly lover’ found himself was to be plunged in a secret, an illicit, and even an adulterous passion for some seemingly unattainable and pedestalized lady… the most beautiful of absolute disasters, an agony as much desired as bemoaned … This was not in theory the attitude of a husband to his wife. It was for a husband to command, for a wife to obey (12).

In the 1600’s when Andrew Marvell was alive, the estimated life expectancy was a lot shorter than it is in the present. Marvell’s poem “To His Coy Mistress” is a dramatic monologue about not having enough time in his life to enjoy his mistress. Even if he lived a longer life there would never be enough time. The poem as a whole consists of forty-six lines and is filled with imagery. The images that are invoked by the narrator are in no way ordinary in their description.

In Marvel’s “Coy Mistress” the narrator, a young man, begins with trying to woo his lover by sarinating her with sentences of her being worthy of courtship and having men through love at her for years. Although,

Out of all of the stories and poems in the history of the world, many of them will have similarities and differences. Merriman conveys, “If human life were not limited by space and time, the beloved’s coyness would not harm the lover and the beloved. They would sit and plan how to pass their long time.” The poem “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell is all about a man trying to convince a woman to do something she doesn’t really want to do. The poem “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” by Robert Herrick is about a man talking to many woman not to die without living. In the poems “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell and “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” by Robert Herrick there are many comparison to be made.

Emily Dickinson once said, “Forever is composed of nows.” Love in the renaissance era was passionate but fleeting- always had an obstacle, because marriage was commonly not for love. Love Flings and the modern “crush” happened more often rather than not. As a result, love sonnets were prevalent due to infatuations or heartaches. One of the most routine thematic ideas used in these sonnets was the theme of carpe diem, to seize the day. William Shakespeares, “Carpe Diem,” as well as Andrew Marvells, “To His Coy Mistress,” convey the fleeting romance in the renaissance era using traditional dramatic monologues in order to portray the purpose of carpe diem as a resolution in such dilemmas as well as motto towards life itself.

‘To His Coy Mistress’ has a particularly strong theme of Time. One of the main ideas involved is that you must to savour what you have in the moment because everything expires and dies eventually. It is also a very physical poem, focusing on visual attraction rather than 'pure' love. It is also a sexual poem, trying to pressurize a partner into sex.

‘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.

need to use the convention of writing a letter or a poem to try and