To His Coy Mistress Annotations

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

In Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress", the speaker is talking to his lover or significant other, or as he calls her "lady". Throughout the poem he is trying to persuade her to consummate their relationship. To convince the "lady", Marvell argues that they are running out of time, so they must love each other as much as they can before they die. To make his argument more convincing, Marvell uses hyperbole, imagery, and irony in the poem.

In the poem, “To His Coy Mistress,” by Andrew Marvell, The narrator is writing a letter to a woman he is courting, which the storyteller feels that life is short and this woman needs to stop showing mixed feelings towards him, to know her true feelings. The narrator is convinced that there is not enough time for this woman to be shy, regarding her feelings to him, in addition to, his opinion of believing that he is the best man for her, but if this woman does not feel the same way, then let the narrator live his life and to not make him wait for a decision from her. The message of this poem that is conveyed by the author, life is too short to wait on someone else’s decision of whether a person feels the same way, or if they are being timid about how they feel about someone.

A Man Cursed by Time To His Coy Mistress is written in three stanzas and uses iambic tetrameter and an aabbcc rhyme scheme. The speaker, who is anonymous, is talking to a mistress, who is also anonymous. The speaker basically talks about his fear of mortality and how them having sex with each other can help slow down time throughout the entire poem. To His Coy Mistress in itself means a woman that’s shy and has sex.

In the first section, the speaker laments that there is not enough time for his mistress’ attempts at shyness and virtue, and that such pretenses should be abandoned. However, the speaker continues, that if there were enough time, his love would transcend time and grow “vaster than empires” (599). He concludes this section by saying “For, lady, you deserve this state, / Nor would I love at lower rate” (600). This couplet reiterates his passion for the lady, and in essence, sums up everything he said in the section.

The second stanza has a rhyme scheme of ABABCD. The change in the rhyming pattern mirrors the increasing horrors of the war. Stanza three continues the rhyming pattern left of in stanza two. The drowning that the speaker witnessed has messes with his mind that he uses the word “drowning” to rhyme the end of stanza three with stanza two. The fourth stanza is a reflection of the rhyme scheme introduced in stanza one.

By placing the rhyme scheme only on the first and third lines of the stanzas the author shows the importance of the lines and sets them apart from the rest of the stanza. These two lines carry the main story through the poem. The uses of sound devices in this poem allows the reader to fully grasp the ideas and central tones that are apparent throughout the

As I read To His Coy Mistress; by Andrew Marvell, I ponder on the meaning of the poem. When I first read the poem I came to understand it to be about a man deeply in love with a women and he wanted nothing more to let her know of his love before he died. Now after reading A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, by Wilfred Guerin, Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, Jeanne C. Reesman, and John R. Willingham, I now see two different meanings of the poem. As I still believe my first impressions to be true in my way, I have also come to understand a different meaning in the poem as well.

In the poem “To His Coy Mistress” the speaker attempts to seduce a hesitant woman. The speaker’s attempts to persuade the mistress can be identified with the change of tone and pace in the poem. For example, “Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime.”(1-2) in these two opening lines, Marvell uses punctuation in order to slow down the pace of the poem without interfering with his consistent use of iambic. This reflects the speakers message of how pointless time is. This is followed by the repeated use of open vowel sounds, such as would, which, way, and our in the next two lines to make the reader sound wistful as if they are sighing “We would sit down, and think which way To walk, and pass our long love’s day” (3-4). To further woo the mistress, alliteration is also used to great effect, in line 1 “we” and “world”, in line 2 “coyness” and “crime”, in Line 3 “we would” and “which way” and finally in line 4 “long love’s”. In the next sixteen lines, it can be sensed the speaker has upon his lips a slow smirk forming, that coincides

In both “To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time” and “To His Coy Mistress” the topic of seduction is present. In Herrick’s poem the speaker urges the maidens to “be not coy…and while ye may, go marry” (13-14). The speaker suggests to the young maidens that being coy will postpone any prospects of marrying young. The speaker encourages these young women to use their youth, beauty, and femininity and seduce a possible suitor. He implies that being excessively flirtatious without the result of marriage will leave unmarried and miserable. The speaker is not only instructing the virgins to seduce but seduce with marriage in mind. Unlike Herrick’s seduction with the intent of marriage, Marvell’s speaker seduces his lover without the thought of marriage.

The representation of sexual pleasure and intercourse throughout “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell and “The Flea” by John Donne functions as a way to present, confirm and refute the traditional stereotypical view of carpe diem love poetry. The speakers within both poems aim to “seize the day” by wooing and taking advantage of women and their virginity and sexuality. They not only want to take advantage of the time they have but also make sure they do not regret not doing anything in the future. In specific, “To His Coy Mistress” presents the view that men are able to manipulate and seduce women through the use of inappropriate and often graphic imagery. The speaker identifies the couple’s lack of time as a way to advance his wooing and potentially speed up the foreplay. In doing so, the speaker is presented as being persistent and sleazy due to his relentlessness of pursuing. Representation of carpe diem love is also shown in “The Flea.” This poem contains a different tone than that of “To His Coy Mistress” due to the speaker being shown as less threatening in his sexual pursuit of the woman. The speaker shows the representation with the male’s sexual agenda being aided by the description of a flea as well as the usage of “flirty” and often humorous language. Both poems are discussing and referring to the act of sexual intercourse and in doing so relate these exploits to the commonly used theme of carpe diem to justify the speaker’s actions.

Andrew Marvell and John Donne both wrote “carpe diem” poetry full of vivid imagery and metaphysical conceits. This message can be clearly seen in the poems "To His Coy Mistress" by Marvell and Donne’s "Flea." Though both poems take a similar approach to the topic addressed, it is Marvell that writes more thoughtfully and carefully, coercing instead of Donne’s seemed demanding\begging.

The poem follows a very regular rhyming pattern. The ending rhymes in Stanza 1, lines 1-4, “live” “be” “give” “thee” follow the pattern ‘abab’, as do the rest of the end rhymes in each stanza. Every fourth line ends with ‘thee’ and every odd line rhymes. It continues as ‘abab cbcb dbdb’

In this poem the end rhyme scheme in the first couplet is “aa”. End rhyme scheme in the second couplet is ‘’bb’’. In the third couplet is ‘’cc’’. In the fourth is ‘’dd’’. And in the fifth couplet is ‘’ee’’ etc. This can be observed with examples from the poem.

Marvell set the stage for “To His Coy Mistress” straight from the beginning with the title. In today’s term, “mistress” has a very negative connotation associated with it. This connotation did not exist during the time that Marvell wrote the poem. However, it did still share a similar definition of meaning a woman who is having extramarital relationships. Making this poem even more sexual, the word “coy” creates a atmosphere of holding back and unsureness. This pairing of words shows that there is already a conflict between the speaker and the mistress because he would like to have sex, but she is holding back and does not see good reason to have sex.