To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell

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To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell

It is a metaphysical poem, which means its lyric contains many

striking images, is very intense and uses strong metaphors.

It is concerned with a young man who is trying to persuade a young

woman to have sex with him by charming and rushing her into it because

he only has one thing on his mind.

In the poem he uses three different arguments, flattery, fear and

passion to persuade her to his point of view.

In the first section Andrew Marvell uses flattery, he does this by

telling her that if he had all the time in the world he would use it

by telling her how beautiful she is and stare into her eyes but he

doesn't have this time and he knows this so he's using his charm and

persuasion to get her to sleep with him, a quote from this first

section to support this is,

'An hundred years should go to praise

Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze

Two hundred to adore each breast

But thirty thousand to the rest'

He also tells her how beautiful she looks by comparing her to exotic,

mysterious and different places in the world, he would have used this

because countries such as India have only just been discovered at this

time and they would have been thought of as new exciting, different,

attractive places

'Thou by Indian Ganges' side

Shouldst rubies find'

And comparing himself to a boring bridge that's found in Hull over a

dirty river, this is to make her feel special and wanted by this

ordinary everyday man,

'I by the tide

Of Humber would complain'

The young man also compares his love to lengths of time and great

moments in history that are related to the bible, he tells her that he

will love her forever until death do they part, also that hi...

... middle of paper ...

...rom what he says here the woman you

can tell he just wants her for sex and that he really doesn't respect

her morals or even respect her heart.

I really don't think this man is successful because he doesn't give

the woman anything that he's told her, he has just made promises and

has judged this woman by thinking she will be easily persuaded with

out really knowing her.

The poem is trying to pursue the importance that life is short and

make the most of what you are given but also that words and promises

aren't worth anything with out trust and respect. It also suggests

that you should stick by your beliefs and do not betray your own

morals because you could be giving them up for nothing in return, just

like, if the young woman did decide to have sex with the man then she

will be left hurt and used with no pride in saying that she stuck by

her guns.

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