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What Does To His Coy Mistress Mean

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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. A Mistress is the name given to a woman that has an affair with someone who is already married. Coy means that someone, usually a woman, has a sense of shyness or modestly that can be alluring. Sex is one of the big themes in “To His Coy Mistress”. In the first line Marvell says “Had we but world enough, and time, this coyness, lady, were no crime.” Which is basically him telling the Mistress that is they had all of the time in the world then her coyness or shyness would be acceptable. However, due to the fact that they’re both going to die someday soon, she has to have sex with him. Another point where he talks about rushing sex before they …show more content…

As it was mentioned before, it seems the writer sees Time as a trap, as if it is fleeting and not to be wasted. This is seen when he uses a metaphor for time being like a chariot, “But at my back I always hear Time’s winged chariot hurrying near.” (lines 21 and 22). The speaker speaks of Time like it is chasing him and will soon have him in his grasp, meaning he will eventually die which is a terrifying thought for him to have, since he seems to be afraid of mortality. It also seems that the speaker thinks if the Mistress has sex with him they will have more control over how much time they have. He also connects Time and the Sun at the end of the poem when he writes “Thus, though we cannot make our sun stand still, yet we will make him run.” (line 45, 46) which is him, now calmly, saying that if they could control the sun then they could control

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