His Coy Mistress Thesis

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Recommended: Romanticism period poetry analysis

“To seduce this girl or not?” is a simple question for most men. Andrew Marvell knew very well what the outcome of reciting his poem, “To His Coy Mistress”, would be. Back in the 16th century, when Marvell wrote this poem, women were treated as second-class citizens. Most were uneducated or if they were, it was to an insignificant amount. Women only knew what they were told and what they were told was to benefit a man’s world. The poem does not state whom the Romeo is but it is more than likely Andrew Marvell himself. Marvell knew that with flattery he could persuade this unsuspecting, unknowing, undefiled girl to copulate with him.
Marvell starts off his siren’s call with the setting of limited time. The beginning of the poem reads, “Had we but world enough, and time, this coyness, lady, were no crime.”(Marvell Lines 1 and 2). If time wasn’t an issue, it wouldn’t matter if she acted shy and reserved. He knows that eventually she would open up to him and no longer need to play the flirty damsel in distress card (even though, psychologically we, as males, are drawn to it).
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Soon enough, she will not have her youthful looks anymore and that her long withheld virginity will go to waste. He dementedly adds the part that no man will be able to enjoy her company but the grotesque worms surely will. By that time, he would sorrowfully no longer possess those lustful feelings towards her anymore (longshot but, I’m guessing Marvell was not into necrophilia). She is rattled, shaken by the talk of time hurrying near and her body withering away to nothing; that’s precisely how he wants it. “Broken” girls are sadly easier to seduce than well put together girls are, e.g., a girl with “daddy

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