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To his coy mistress critical analysis
To his coy mistress analytical essay
Analysis essay of his coy mistress
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Response: To His Coy Mistress
To His Coy Mistress is an argument poem about a man trying to persuade his shy mistress to give into his physical desires. He starts off by saying that if he had all the money and time in the world he would spend it all on dating and impressing her. As the poem progresses, he becomes more and more urgent and forceful with his words. The man begins to tell her that she will be old and ?dusty? soon so she should just give into him at that moment. He essentially tells her now or never. However, the larger idea of the poem is not about having sex before you get old, it is about seizing the moment and not taking time for granted.
At the beginning of the poem the man tries to persuade her by explaining to her that, if he could, he would devote all of his time to her. He tells her he will spend ?thirty thousand? years adoring her body, because that is the state she deserves. He also tells her that they could flirt over a vast area, from the Indian?s Ganges to England?s own Humber. Space and time are exaggerated in an attempt to impress and persuade her into his selfish desires. The speaker is not really going to spend any time with her, he is solely driven by his lustful desires and has no intention of staying with her. He begins by saying he will wait for her, but the following lines prove otherwise. He makes it clear that he always hears a ?winged chariot hurrying near? and that in a few years she will no longer be beautiful. With the lines, ?The grave?s a fine and private place, but none, I think, do there embrace? he brings up the idea that if they do not act on their love, she might die without any love at all.
Although the author is without a doubt talking about sex, the theme of the poem is really to seize the moment and not take time for granted. The author keeps a lot of emphasis on death and the grave. He is trying to tell her that she will not have eternity to look as youthful and beautiful as she does now, so she should value her looks while she still has them. By talking about the worms in her grave, he is trying to say that her virginity and beauty will do her no good there, but in this present day and time she can get some use out of them.
Sex is more than just a physical act. It's a beautiful way to express love. When people have sex just to fulfill a physical need, as the poet believes sex outside of love-based relationship only harms and cheapens sex. In the beginning of the poem, Olds brilliantly describe the beauty of sex, and then in the second half of the poem, she continues reference to the cold and aloneness which clearly shows her opinions about causal sex. Through this poem, Sharon Olds, has expressed her complete disrespect for those who would participate in casual sex.
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
...represent the stages of one’s life. She focuses on the most extreme sense of ends-death, and rejects it as final. What the poem arrived at is that some aspect of life or form of existence continues after death.
In the second stanza, Marvell turns his attention to another “problem” that his lover might pose by not sleeping with him. He writes, “But at my back I always hear/ Times winged chariot hurrying near” (21-22). Marvell is concerned about death in this situation. He is now pleading to his woman because he feels threatened by time. He tells her that time is running out and that they had better sleep together before it is too late. Marvell solidifies this argument a few lines later by presenting the idea of death and the fact that they can not have sexual intercourse once they are dead. He writes, “The grave’s a fine and private place/ But none, I think, do there embra...
The speaker begins the poem an ethereal tone masking the violent nature of her subject matter. The poem is set in the Elysian Fields, a paradise where the souls of the heroic and virtuous were sent (cite). Through her use of the words “dreamed”, “sweet women”, “blossoms” and
Marvell attempts to persuade his conquest with a focus on death through the imagery of ashes and time. “Then worms shall try/That long-preserved virginity, And your quaint honor turn to dust,” (Marvell 28-29). This exaggerated image is used to encourage the young mistress to give her virginity rather than see the silliness in seen worms as a threat to her out of date female genitals in her grave. His pleas fall on deaf ears, as we do not hear from the side of the woman. Both literary works not only provide great pieces when contemplating outdated seduction traditions, but also find the darker importance of what makes a great poem.
The speaker continues to argue that time is not in favor of his mistress’s nervousness or his age. For instance, he says, “But at my back I always hear time’s winged chariot hurrying near” (lines 21 and 22). In other words, he is saying his time is running out quickly. There can be many reasons why his time is running short, but according to the poem there is one reason he could be in a rush to make love with his mistress. The speaker says, “And yonder all before us lie deserts of vast eternity” (lines 23 and 24). “Deserts of vast eternity” (line 24) expresses his concern of not being able to have children, which would make him sterile. As men age, their sperm count becomes less and less, which makes conceiving a child nearly impossible.
In the first stanza, when she says" I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me", she’s not ready to die but accepts the fact that it is a natural thing that happens to all human beings, and comes at its own time, no matter what you are doing or where you are it will come and take you, to which she seems content with. She personifies death as if it was a kind gentleman, or her groom that comes to pick her up and take her away in his carriage on a pleasant ride; she also realizes that ironically someone else is riding along with them, Immortality—looking at it in a positive way. It is also interesting to point out how she separates death from immortality, when she says “The carriage held but just ourselves—and immortality”.
The poet mourns the death of his loved one and wants the world to grieve with him. His wants his subjective to be objective. The first stanza links everything to noise. He wants to 'silence the piano ' for example, showing how he wants no more noise in the world. Throughout the poem, there are many imperatives. This relates back to Remember, where the poems title is included in the imperatives. The third stanza has no imperatives at all, and many antonyms. This is the poets way of saying they meant everything to him. The second stanza uses 'scribbling ' to personify a plane. The use of personification in the poem links back to Do not go gentle into that good night. The first stanza contains references to things that can be easily done like 'stop all the clocks '. The second has things that are theoretically possible but a bit harder to do. The poem seems to get less and less realistic as it goes on. The final line, 'For nothing now can ever come to any good ', is quite bleak, showing how the death of his partner has affected the poet. It gives him no good feelings
This entire poem talk about how beauty fades with time. Thus, like any carpe diem poetry, one is urged to cherish time. In this case, beauty is associated with time and the narrator believes that both should be cherished with the same intensity. There is a tone of urgency to find physical love, as the narrator only addresses physical beauty, which fades. He wants the girl to learn to be "desired" and "admired" while she is still beautiful.
There is a similar theme running through both of the poems, in which both mistresses are refusing to partake in sexual intercourse with both of the poets. The way in which both poets present their argument is quite different as Marvell is writing from a perspective from which he is depicting his mistress as being 'coy', and essentially, mean, in refusing him sex, and Donne is comparing the blood lost by a flea bite to the blood that would be united during sex. Marvell immediately makes clear his thoughts in the poem when he says, "Had we but world enough, and time/ This coyness, Lady were no crime", he is conveying the 'carpe diem' idea that there is not enough time for her to be 'coy' and refuse him sexual intercourse and he justifies this thought when he suggests when she is dead, in ?thy marble vault?, and ?worms shall try that long preserved virginity?. He is using the idea of worms crawling all over and in her corpse as a way of saying that the worms are going to take her virginity if she waits until death. Donne justifies his bid for her virginity in a much longer and more methodical way, he uses the idea of the flea taking her blood and mixing it with his, ?It suck?d me first, and now sucks thee?, and then...
In this piece of literature, the persona describes death as being gentle, handsome and well groomed. Perhaps a man coming to pick a woman up for a date. The poem begins with the woman bring suprised on how "nice" death actually is. It would n't be right for a young women to take a carriage ride with a strage gentelman by herself, so in this case Immortality rides with them, and supervises. Immortaility is only mentioned once through out this piece, because the woman is still much focused on death. People have busy lives, and don't think of their own death, however, the speaker admitts that she was willing to put aside her distractions and go with death. She seemed to find it pretty charmming. She comments on his politeness. If she has any expectations, they were certainly met.
The speaker’s language towards the woman’s death in “The Last Night that she lived” portrays a yearning attitude that leads to disappointment; which reiterates human discontent with the imperfections of life. The description of woman’s death creates an image of tranquility that causes the speaker to aspire towards death. Her death compares to a reed floating in water without any struggle. The simile paradoxically juxtaposes nature and death because nature’s connotation living things, while death refers to dead things, but death becomes a part of nature. She consents to death, so she quietly dies while those around her refuse to accept her imminent death. The speaker’s description of death sounds like a peaceful experience, like going to sleep, but for eternity. These lines describe her tranquil death, “We waited while She passed—It was a narrow time—Too jostled were Our Souls to speak. At length the notice came. She mentioned, and forgot—Then lightly as a Reed Bent to the water, struggled scarce- Consented, and was dead-“ .Alliteration in “We waited”, emphasizes their impatience of the arrival of her death because of their curiosity about death. The woman’s suffering will be over soon. This is exhibited through the employment of dashes figuratively that form a narrow sentence to show the narrowing time remaining in her life, which creates suspense for the speaker, and also foreshadows that she dies quickly. The line also includes a pun because “notice” refers to the information of her death, and also announcement, which parallels to the soul’s inability to speak. “She mentioned, and forgot—“, refers to her attempt to announce her farewell to everyone, which connects to the previous line’s announcement. The dashes fig...
Marvellous to His Mistress: Carpe Diem! In Andrew Marvell's poem "To His Coy Mistress," he's arguing for affection. The object of the speaker's desire is 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
Structure, a major tool stressed in this poem, tends to rearrange the text in a large-scale way. In "To His Coy Mistress", the reader should focus on the most significant types of structure: stanza and temporal. In other words, time and chronological order assemble the whole meaning of the text throughout the poem. Although the story contains seduction and intimacy, which is portrayed in the title alone, it is merely a cry for two lovers to be together before time runs out. Temporally, the man first explains to the woman how he would love her if he only had the time. The man's sincerity is truly expressed when Marvell writes, "Had we but world enough, and time...I would love you ten years before the flood...nor would I love at lower rate," (373: 1, 7-8, 20). It seems that the man genuinely cares for the lady, or is he secretly seducing her into bed? Taking a look at the second stanza...