His coy mistress

His coy mistress

narrator says should enjoy each other whist young and attractive
Form
1. fist person narrator-direct appeal to women
2. rhyming couplets make poem sound witty and well constructed
3. slow rhythm-lilting,sweet
Structure
1. stanza 1-wants to spend forever wooing lady
  1. hypothetical situation
2. stanza 2-time is against them, they're going to die
  1. Antiphasist
3. Stanza 3-grab pleasures while they can
  1. enjoy life, trying to get lady to have sex before marriage
  2. synthesis
4. 3 stanzas so 3 arguments
Hyperbole
1. mocks his mistress's romantic ideas of love
2. his sense of frustration is beginning show through his irony & exaggeration
3. 'Indian Ganges'
  1. large river in India worshipped as a goddess
4. 'the flood'
  1. old testament-exaggerates the time scale emphasising his sarcasm
5. 'conversion of the jews'
  1. something that will never happen or will happen at end of world
    1. religious imagery- put religion behind them
6. 'my vegetable...hundred years'
  1. overstates his love to point of being comic
  2. not exciting love- love that grew all over that time
    1. non-sex love
7. 'Two hundred...thirty thousands..an age'
  1. exaggerates the time he would spend on flattery if there were no limits -witty
Language about death
1. reminds his mistress that one day they will both be dead
2. 'deserts of vast eternity'
  1. contrasts vastness and nothingness of death with how brief but full of possibilities life is
  2. deserts are barren-not fertile this could refer to lady
3. 'then the worms shall try....honour turn to dust'
  1. tells her she'll die & be buried as virgin to be eaten by worms.
    1. trying to shock her into giving him want he wants
4. the graves a fine....there embrace'
  1. being sarcastic
  2. nobody to hug you in grave
Aggressive language
1. 'like amorous birds of prey...devour'
  1. simile-draws attentition to power and passion of theses creatures to emphasis his desire for immediate satisfaction
2. 'tear our pleasures with rough strife'
  1. violent language and imagery suggest maybe getting impatient with her
3. more direct in expressing desire for her
'had we'-times limited, united against time
'Indian Ganges'
1. send her off in beautiful place-most beautiful women on earth-flattery
'rubies'-connotations of love
'you deserve this state'
1. you deserve me loving you all this time
2. worth spending all this time on & does want to be able to love her in this way
'nor would'-cant, time run out
'but'-turning point
'winged chariot'
1. metaphor from greek mythology-the sun god rides his chariot across sky-shows passing of time
'marble vault shall sound'
1. white and cold- suggests purity dead and cold
2. you will die-no one will see your beauty
phallic imagery-'worms''quaint'
'and your quaint honour turn to dust'
1. pun-quaint can mean sweet or vagina
  1. patronising
'into ashes all my lust'
1. lust will be dead
'and while thy willing soul transpires'
1. takes it for granted she's willing -could read as ignoring what she wants or convincing her its what she wants
'our'
1. wants them to be united/together
'through the iron gates of life'
1. push aside rules of life
'thus though we cannot...make him run'
1. challenging time
2. defiantly standing up to time-time have to run to keep up with them
Feelings & Attitudes
1. Impatience
  1. doesn't want long courtship with her
2. Urgency
  1. time is moving on, he feels they need to enjoy being together now
3. Reluctancy
  1. from increasing frustration he shows, appears she's unwilling to have sex
Theme-Carpe Diem-seize the day

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	Created by eilishhardy almost 11 years ago