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What is the theme of to his coy mistress
Andrew Marvell To His Coy Mistress
Andrew marvell, his coy mistress essay
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An Analysis of “To His Coy Mistress” Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” is a poem told from the point of view of a young man who claims to be in love with a young woman who is not willing to let him persuade her so easily. The speaker is desperate to have the young lady to sleep with him, so he continues to say everything and anything that he believes will draw her in and make her give in to him.
The speaker is obsessed with time. He keeps putting a measure of time to the way he loves the young woman. He knows that they will not be young forever, nor will they live forever. “Had we but world enough and time,” he says (1). He wants them to enjoy the pleasures in life of being young. While they have the time, he tells her, “We would sit down, and think which way/ [t]o walk, and pass our long love’s day” (3-4). For someone to be so obsessed with time makes one think that the person does not know how to live and enjoy life. To obsess over time is to worry all of his time away. This is the reason the speaker feels that he has to rush things with the young woman he likes, so he tries everything to persuade her.
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Again, he applies time to his love for her. He tells her that he would lover her “ten years before the Flood” (8). He goes on to express his love for her body parts by telling her how many years he would love her for each; “An hundred years should go to praise/ Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze” (13-14) and “Two hundred to adore each breast/ But thirty thousand to the rest” (15-16). Although his love for her is great, it still grow for her. He says, “My vegetable love should grow/ Vaster than empires” (11-12). Even though it seems that he is taking things slowly when he says his “vegetable love” grows “more slow,” He is still trying to rush things along because he is still obsessed with not having enough time with her, “Nor would I love at a lower rate”
James Dickey illustrates the pleasures and guilt that comes with an affair. The rush one gets with the fear of getting caught (Dickey 351). The narrator in the poem seems to have no problem with the affair because he clearly states he will call again if he can, proving that he is barely fazed by not remaining faithful. It is clear that both the narrator and the mistress are pressed for time in this sick lust affair they are having. Both equally nervous about being caught by a significant other or someone, but they don’t seem to care enough to end their relationship. In this case, there seems to be no act of fidelity because the narrator says he’ll see her next week (Dickey
The speaker also manipulates time to bring out his or her message. Lines 3, 8, 11, 21, 34, and 36 all contain some order of either “spring summer autumn winter” (3), as in lines 11 and 34, or “sun moon stars rain” (8), as in lines 11, 21, and 36. As the order of these seasons changes, it indicates the passage of time. This manipulation of time draws attention away from these lines and towards the lines with deeper meaning hidden within. However, there is another form of time: the progression of life. The speaker comments on the growth of children in terms of their maturity levels and how as they get older, children tend to forget their childish whims and fancies and move on. He or she says that they “guessed (but only a few / and down they forgot as up they grew” (9-10). He or she then goes on to say that “no one loved [anyone] more by more” (12), hinting at a relationship in development, foreshadowing a possible marriage.
Using this choice of words like “then worms shall try” and “…turn to dust”, the speaker essentially tells his mistress that there will be consequences if she does not engage with him. He believes his wit will gain control over his mistress, and her “coyness” will inevitably disappear. In his mind, the repercussions are if she dies without having sex with him, the worms will take her virginity, which can be considered as phallic imagery. In the lines, the worms symbolically mirror the narrator’s male sexual organ. Marvell creates an interesting approach with this daring and disturbing language because the appealing strategy grasps the reader’s attention and explores the question of the extent a person will go to fulfill their sexual desires. While discussing this proposed tight-lipped subject, the tone of the narrator in “To His Coy Mistress” greatly differs from the narrator’s tone in “A Rose for Emily.” The readers can perceive that Marvell’s speaker is intelligent and informed in the sexual category because of his style and word choice. He creates a relaxed tone with his audience, which makes the readers feel comfortable, and he is very clear about what he writes. The direction of the arguments he makes is very undeviating because he goes straight into what he wants
Through the third stanza, we find that the woman has killed the flea and therefore quelled any chance of a sexual union between the speaker and his quarry. He has failed once again to gain her favor and seal the deal. While the flea may have been able to take her blood without seduction, the speaker finds excitement in the challenge of living and wooing another day. Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” is another attempt at seducing an unwilling woman. “Had we but the world enough and time, This coyness, lady, was no crime” (Marvell 1-2).
“To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” by Rober Herrick and Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” have many similarities and differences. The tone of the speakers, the audience each poem is directed to, and the theme make up some of the literary elements that help fit this description.
Lover A Ballad was written as a reply to the poem To His Coy Mistress.
Throughout his life... was a man self-haunted, unable to escape from his own drama, unable to find any window that would not give him back the image of himself. Even the mistress of his most passionate love-verses, who must (one supposes) have been a real person, remains for him a mere abstraction of sex: a thing given. He does not see her --does not apparently want to see her; for it is not of her that he writes, but of his relation to her; not of love, but of himself loving.
The Flea and To His Coy Mistress are two poems written by poets living during the Renaissance Period. To His Coy Mistress was written by Andrew Marvell and The Flea was written by John Donne. Both of these poets were well-educated 'metaphysical poets', and these poems illustrate metaphysical concerns, highly abstract and theoretical ideas, that the poets would have been interested in. Both poems are based around the same idea of trying to reason with a 'mistress' as to why they should give up their virginity to the poet.
Response to His Coy Mistress Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" is the charming depiction of a man who has seemingly been working very hard at seducing his mistress. Owing to Marvell's use of the word "coy," we have a clear picture of the kind of woman his mistress is. She has been encouraging his advances to a certain point, but then when he gets too close, she backs off, and resists those same advances. Evidently, this has been going on for quite some time, as Marvell now feels it necessary to broach the topic in this poem. He begins in the first stanza by gently explaining that his mistress's coyness would not be a "crime" if there were "world enough, and time…" (l.2).
"What say you? can you love the gentleman? This night you shall behold him at our feast; Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face, And find delight writ there with beauty's pen; Examine every married lineament, And see how one another lends content; And what obscur'd in this fair volume lies Find written in the margent of his eyes. This precious book of love, this unbound lover, To beautify him, only lacks a cover: The fish lives in the sea; and 'tis much pride For fair without the fair within to hide: That book in many's eyes doth share the glory, That in gold clasps locks in the golden story; So shall you share all that he doth possess, By having him, maki...
In Andrew Marvell's poem "To His Coy Mistress," he's arguing for affection. The object of the speaker's desire wants to wait and take the relationship slow, while the speaker pushes for instant gratification. This persuasive poem makes the point that time waits for no one and it's foolish for two lovers to postpone a physical relationship.
Love in "To His Coy Mistress", "Shall I Compare Thee," "Let Me Not," and "The Flea"
In Robert Herrick’s “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”, the speaker is telling all the young boys to make most their youth. The titles of the poem are referring sexual pleasure and urging youth to make most of it. “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may-/ Old time is still a-flying”(Herrick1-2). The rosebuds are symbol of pleasure; we should go for it while we are young. Time will not wait and we may not have another chance to make it right. He used figurative languages to compare “flowers” to the young women. Women are also like flowers. Women blossoms like flowers, age with the time, and then eventually die. “The sooner will his race be run / and nearer he’s to setting”. He is suggesting you...
Eavan Boland’s poem “Love” comes from her collection entitled In a Time of Violence. In the piece Boland both reflects on the history of her and her husband’s love and ties it in with the story of a hero who travels to hell. The poem’s form is stanzaic, broken into 7 stanzas with 38 lines. “Love” is rich with metaphor, simile, personification and imagery. The poem makes constant allusion to Greek Mythology, and the author’s story runs parallel to that of Odysseus from Homer’s “The Odyssey” . Boland is able to convey the journey loves take throughout the course of a relationship and how it is affected during difficult times.
Then on the other hand, the poet says that his beloved is not like the extreme summer days, that his youth will not fade, he will not lose the beauty he currently possesses and beauty will not die, but live forever (and that he will be immortal), at least in this poem. As long as people exist on earth, this ...