To His Coy Mistress By Andrew Marvell Summary and Analysis

➥Marvell: "To His Coy Mistress”

About the Author

Andrew Marvell (March 31, 1621 – August 16, 1678) was an English metaphysical poet, who was largely ignored during his lifetime. He rose to prominence over the centuries and is now considered to be one of the most remarkable poets of the seventeenth century. Marvell’s reputation was overshadowed for a long time by his revolutionary politics, which included a stint as a parliamentarian. Most of his verse, unfortunately, consists of satires written for political ends, and suffers as a result. His lyric poetry, however, unfortunately took no subject but himself. While the result consists of beautiful, effortless, flowing verses that roll off the tongue and through the mind with an ease unequaled among poets of his era, his writings offer little to the beauty of the world in which we live.

Summary of the Text

Andrew Marvell wrote “To His Coy Mistress” in iambic tetrameter, which means that each line has four iambic feet. Most of the time, people use iambic pentameter, which has five iambic feet. A stressed syllable comes after an unstressed syllable. There’s also something interesting about the way “To His Coy Mistress” is written: it starts with the problem, then moves on to the current situation, and finally ends with the solution, all from the point of view of the lovelorn gentleman who is trying to win the love of his beloved.

In the first line, there are ten couplets, which is a traditional structure. However, even though the poem is in the form of a love poem, it doesn’t try to be too high-minded; the man only wants his lady to give in to his sexual advances, so the use of the traditional love elegy structure (also called “carpe diem” poetry) might seem ironic. But since this was written at a time when people didn’t easily show their feelings like this, the poem was quite ahead of its time because of the beautiful language and the strong focus on the woman’s beauty.

The man starts by telling his lady how he would worship her if he had unlimited time. He makes their love much bigger than the poem can handle by using phrases like “love you ten years before the Flood” to describe it in almost Biblical terms as “vegetable love,” which shows how slowly and steadily it grows (always a hint at a huge step forward). He then says that he will spend “a hundred years” praising her eyes and forehead, “two hundred years” praising her breasts, and “thirty thousand” praising the rest. To His Coy Mistress also doesn’t make fun of or insult the woman’s looks, like Shakespeare did in “My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun.” That’s not how philosophical poetry works. The use of an erotic blazon, which comes from Petrarchan love poems, elevates the woman the speaker loves; this is the most real kind of love the man thinks he can handle.

The mood of To His Coy Mistress changes quickly in the next few lines. In the first, there wasn’t much hurry or haste. The author took his time describing the woman’s beauty and all the reasons why she should be worshiped. The result is a smooth, languid poem that doesn’t rush to the end. But in these lines, the poet changes the tone. He is begging and rushing at the same time when he tells the lady that he hears “time’s winged chariot hurrying near,” which is a reference to Greek mythology and another way of honoring his love.Even though the artist still says how beautiful his woman is, he tells her that he doesn’t have time to worship her the way he wants to because time is always running out. They will face “deserts of vast eternity,” and she will lose her beauty. Her virginity and honor will also “turn to dust,” and it seems like all the waiting will have been for nothing. Even though it’s not heavy, the feeling of dread is there.

On the other hand, the last few lines make things better; the poet has an idea! They shouldn’t think about the future. Instead, they should hold each other now, while they still have time, and enjoy being young and beautiful together. It was normal in the 1600s for people to use the word “sport” to mean sex, so the poet tells his lady love, “Now let us sport while we may.” He says they are like “amorous birds of prey,” which shows how natural and spontaneous their desires are. They are both higher than and lower than people.

It sounds like raging passion is in the last few lines: the author wants to “tear our pleasures with rough strife / through the iron gates of life,” which means they put their passion above life itself. It’s important to note that the last few lines are the most beautifully poetic. Even though the mood is one of begging them not to waste their time, the author keeps the tone light until the end.

Critical Analysis

Andrew Marvell’s poem “To His Coy Mistress” uses a number of literary methods to make the poetic persona’s points more convincing and emotional. In the poem, too, the author links “coyness” to “crime” without saying it directly. It’s a figure of speech. If the woman is too shy, the artist thinks, it might kill his romantic side. “Long Love’s Day” uses both alliteration and description. This is an interesting way for the artist to personify love. The author uses a lot of exaggerations to court his lady love. Here’s another line with an over-the-top tone: “Till the conversion of the Jews.”

The lines “Love you ten years before the flood” and “Till the conversion of the Jews”are references for the poet. The “flood” is Noah’s flood. In the second line, there is a religious reference to the Jews receiving Christ. “Vegetable love” is a figure of speech or a metaphysical assumption in the song. “Time’s winged chariot” is an example of the author using personification. It’s also a reference and a symbol. Avengers: Endgame’s last line makes the sun into a person and says that they “will make him run.”

“Seize the day” is the main idea of the song. “Seize the day!” is what the Latin term “carpe diem” means. Marvell loved this idea and used it in many of his works. The author of this song says that waiting for the right time to make love is just a waste of time. Before their bodies start to get old, the poetic character and his love should make love touch. The main idea of the song is to forget about the future and enjoy the present. There isn’t anything coming up. In the poem, the man asks his lady love to take the moment and make love like they’ve never done before.

Time is another big idea in the song. In this poem, the author makes time an enemy of the lover and the beloved. It’s always there to wash away their youth and energy. Time doesn’t wait for loves. It goes away along its path. Time never waits for lovers, so they shouldn’t push off their plans. Because his reason is so good, the poetic character tells his love to make love as soon as possible. To help the gentleman, the author uses the idea of time and how it changes in this way. People who read it will decide if he wins or not. But his points are good!