To His Coy Mistress

To His Coy Mistress

1. Andrew Marvell

   • 1621 - 1678 (lived during English Civil War)
   • Supported Oliver Cromwell in disestabilishing the monarchy
   • father was a C of E clergyman
   • themes
     • metaphysical poet (existence + knowledge)
     • interest in new sincere, imperialism, exploration
     • grandoise, far-fetched style
     • perfection as an ideal not a reality
     • epicurian philosphy
       • 'pleasure is the greatest good'
       • hedonism 'mazimize pleasure, minimise pain'

2. Structure

   • rhyming couplets
   • iambic tetrameter - 4 sets of iams
   • reduction from Marvell's frequent use of iambic pentameter. Lessening length of poem's form could represent the poem's emphasis of limited time. Marvell shortens the metre to represent our limited time in this world.
   • 3 stanzas: 1) imagination of life without limits (immortality) 2) facing the reality of limited life (mortality - death) 3) panacea (solution) on how to live + love within a limited amount of time on Earth (seduction)
   • a gentlemen wooing the lady he loves OR a man attempting to steal a woman's virginity?

3. Had we but world enough and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime.

   • punctuation - delays our reading, slows us down, to emphasise prospect of eternity
   • alliteration of coyness + crime: coyness - shyness, coquettish (flirtatious) crime - suggests wrongdoing, is this coyness an act?

4. Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide Of Humber would complain.

   • rubies - suggests her to be precious like a gem
   • exotic location -> echoes spirit of exploration
   • Humber - river in N.E. of England, appears less exotic than Ganges in India -> comparison between his exotic mistress + his more humdrum self
   • even if we live forever i want to be with you all the time
   • The River (water) represents a journey - The Stream of Life

5. My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires and more slow;

   • vegetable love -> suggests a hidden love (underground), deeper + rooted, in opposition to a 'fruitful' love which would be on show
     • or erection?
   • spreads globally like the British Empire, slowly + encompassing the world - reference to era of exploration + discovery

6. 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;

   • 100 - face, 200 - breasts, 30,000 - the rest
     • list lacks balance: more focus consensual areas (breasts) rather than pure aspects of appearance (face)

7. I would Love you ten years before the flood, And you should, if you please, refuse Till the conversion of the Jews.

   • Flood of Noah (4000-3000 BC)
   • Book of Revelation details Conversion of the Jews taking place just before Armageddon (the end of the world0. He promises to love her from just after the Earth is created (Flood) until just before the world ends.

8. An age at least to every part, And the last age should show your heart.

   • part - romantic or mechanical?
   • heart - only in the end will he know her heart, love will only develop at the very end -> lust goes before love

9. We would sit down, and think which way To walk, and pass our long love’s day.

   • love's long day: metaphor - a life in one day
   • direction: there would be time to contemplate the direction of their relationship

10. And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity.

    • each human life is like a single grain of sand in the desert
    • we are insignificant blips in a world that lasts forever

11. Thy beauty shall no more be found; Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound My echoing song;

    • you can't be beautiful if you're dead
    • no songs are heard in tombs - no poets are going to write you poems if your in the grave

12. then worms shall try That long-preserved virginity,

    • non-romantic phallic image
    • can such base observations help him accomplish his goal in seducing this woman?

13. For, lady, you deserve this state, Nor would I love at lower rate.

    • state - quality of a person's characteristics or circumstances, an organised community under one government or republic, a country's government, to get upset/become excited, (stately) dignified, imposing, grand
      • 'you deserve to be with a man of my status'
    • lower rate - speed? heart rate, rate- price/score, love is given a value (transaction)

14. But at my back I always hear Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;

    • Elija, a prophet of God who doesn't die but goes to Heaven on a winged chariot
    • God/time can come + snatch you away whenever it wants to - inevitability + unpredictable nature of death

15. The grave’s a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace.

    • you'll have time to yourself when you're dead
    • the body is stasis -> non-christian, non-atheistic (when you die you're trapped in your body, with some form of consciousness)
    • Stanza 2: sees death as eternal, assonance, consonance, alliteration -> premise of ongoing post-death consciousness

16. And your quaint honour turn to dust, And into ashes all my lust;

    • quaint - old-fashioned/outmoded - seems to be condescension
    • whether we live by honour or lust we end as dust/ashes -> this questions the religious sentiment of the period, implying there is no saintliness nor is there sin

17. Now therefore, while the youthful hue Sits on thy skin like morning dew,

    • metaphor of life in a day
    • simile

18. And while thy willing soul transpires At every pore with instant fires,

    • instant - encourages spontaneity
    • morning dew (youthful innocence) vs. instant fire (spontaneous desire). The fiery sweat of desire will seep through her pores + burn the youthful dew of innocence resting her sin. Desire conquers innocence

19. Now let us sport us while we may, And now, like amorous birds of prey,

    • sport - hunt/ thrill of the chase
    • amorous - feelings of sexual love, birds of prey - companions for life

20. Rather at once our time devour Than languish in his slow-chapped power.

    • metre is deliberately slowed with 'languish, slow + chapt'
    • devour - debauchery, gluttony
    • his - father time or God? Probably not God because it's not His

21. Let us roll all our strength and all Our sweetness up into one ball,

    • roll - physically rolling around - sex
    • strength (masculine) / sweetness (feminine) -> atonement (at-one-ment) physically 'being at one' - amalgamation

22. And tear our pleasures with rough strife Through the iron gates of life:

    • use violent sex to escape life's prison (monotony)
    • pleasures - hedonism vs. sadism

23. Thus, though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.

    • refers back to Stanza 1: although we cannot stop time (sun stand still)... it will have to catch us up to end our existence
    • sun is the constant, not God

24. Conclusions

    • Endure a life-long seduction/make a sexual pact to serve as a hedonistic pleasure causing complete distraction from the inevitability of death
    • cheat time by indulging fully in each other