Analysis Of To His Coy Mistress

Kervin Brown

Dr. Page

English 2543

November 27, 2015

To His Coy Mistress To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell Is a poem narrated by a male romantic to his lover as an attempt to persuade her to get into bed with him. The man continues to try and persuade her, even going as far as to say that her being shy and hesitant would be acceptable if the two had “world enough, and time.” Furthermore, he thinks they should take advantage of their sensual embodiment while it lasts. While proclaiming to his lover, he tells her that her beauty and her virginity will go to waste if she does not sleep with him, “That long-preserved virginity, and your quaint honor turn to dust, and into ashes all my lust…” (Ln 28-30) This promotes to us that Marvell’s does

The ironic point about this “love poem” is that it hardly has anything to do with love. The sentiment expressed in poem is that he is suggesting to the "coy" female that time is fading away faster than what she assumes it is. Convincing her that if they had eternity, her taciturnity would not be a major focus in their “relationship,” he tries to sell her promises of all the beautiful non-sexual activities they could participate in to fill their blissful eternity. Time is not their friend at the moment because the timer is ticking on them. As most people could vouch for their first time having relations; being rushed or pressured to have sex could be scary and nervous. The fact that he is pressuring her that they need to have sex before they die, gave her a really shy attitude. Statements the man said, verify my comment, for example when he told her, “An age at least to every part, and the last age should show your heart…” (Ln 17-18) which to her meant she is not getting any younger in age to lose her virginity to somebody. Even though a few lines down he tries to convince her that he is doing it for her best interest, “Nor would I love at a lower rate.” (Ln 20) the lower rate symbolizes that he would not try and pressure her into having sex, if it was not for the fact that time is running out on her being able

Is she scared by some of his remarks? With the many mentions of her dying and insects enjoying her body could have easily spooked her into running into bed with him, but unfortunately that was not the case, “My echoing song: then worms shall try that long-preserved virginity,” (Ln 27-28) meaning that he is telling the mistress that, in the grave, worms will have sex with her dead body. A couples lines below the man tries to tell us that his love for her is all that he has, “And into ashes all my lust:” (Ln 30) basically telling her that if they die without having sex, all of his lust, will burn into ashes. After examining what he said on line thirty, he is implying that, if he can’t have sex with her, he won’t have sex period, possibly dying a virgin. Which is his motive in consistently trying to persuade his coy mistress into having sex with him. He is so infatuated with one woman that if he cannot perform making love to the woman of he is so passionately obsessed with, he will not have sex with any other woman. The thought in the process of his seemingly “desperate act of romance.” Brings to mind if he is only trying to convince himself that he may possibly die a virgin and he only wants the woman of his dreams, he is trying to hurry and convince to make love with him because it may not ever happen. Here’s food for thought, is the man trying to find love or is he trying to beat the death