Analysis of To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell

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Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” is in my opinion an excellent poem about a subject matter we can all understand and most of us can relate to: a love just beyond reach. This is the primary reason I believe it is most suited to be in a college textbook. One of the hardest things to accomplish in a poem written for uninterested college students is making it understandable and enjoyable by the audience, but this poem does it very well. In doing so, however, it also includes several important elements of poetic language that will educate the reader while at the same time keeping him or her interested. The initial paragraph lures the reader into believing that this is a happy lover’s poem written to woo a woman with whom he is in love. The steady string of compliments mesh together very well and leave a warm and happy image of the pair’s relationship. The imagery is wonderful as well, as in this example: “My vegetable love should grow / Vaster than empires, and more slow” (Marvell 11-2). This sentence inspires a mental picture of a sweeping kingdom and all the vastness th...

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