His Coy Mistress

729 Words2 Pages

“To His Coy Mistress” is a carpe-diem poem, but it reflects a restrictive nature. The speaker, a male lover persuading his mistress to have sex with him, fills his words with rhetorics and allusions to encourage her to ignore social norms of the 17th century. An examination of his language reveals that the speaker doesn’t seem to always mean what he says and that he also struggles with the restrictive norms he suggested that his mistress disregard. Thus, ‘To His Coy Mistress’ is a commentary on the different confinements one suffers in their life from societal standards, time, and from others.

The speaker comes from a position that makes him feel restricted. First, he feels confined among social expectations, specifically the culture that …show more content…

‘Time’ is personified as an antagonist that sets out to vanquish youth, beauty, and love, and the objective of the speaker is to avoid being caught in its chase. Thus, the pace and intensity of the poem’s language dramatically accelerates with every stanza: With the exaggeration of the erotic blazon, the poem opens up slowly, stretching for thousands of years until “the conversion of the Jews”. The pace dramatically shifts in the second stanza as soon as “time’s winged chariot” was mentioned; the narrative voice becomes paranoid with all the bad possibilities that could prevent him from getting laid. Finally, the third stanza becomes the final sprint as the speaker exuded the last bit of his passionate lust to offer his lover the final solution: sex, immediately. With fiery diction such as “instant fires”, “devour”, or “tear our pleasure with rough strife”, the voice of the speaker grows loud and rapid, as if screaming “RUN!” to the reader. We become caught up in the moment as the passion in the tone explodes, as if time really stops for an instance. Both explicitly through diction and implicitly through tone, the speaker successfully expresses the crunch of time descending upon the

Show More
Related

  • Anna Williams and Charlotte Lennox

    617 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the eighteenth century, the process of choosing a husband and marrying was not always beneficial to the woman. A myriad of factors prevented women from marrying a man that she herself loved. Additionally, the men that women in the eighteenth century did end up with certainly had the potential to be abusive. The attitudes of Charlotte Lennox and Anna Williams toward women’s desire for male companionship, as well as the politics of sexuality, are very different. Although both Charlotte Lennox and Anna Williams express a desire for men in their poetry, Charlotte Lennox views the implications of this desire differently than Anna Williams.

    Read More

  • The Lady in the Pink Mustang

    1003 Words  | 3 Pages

    The readers are apt to feel confused in the contrasting ways the woman in this poem has been depicted. The lady described in the poem leads to contrasting lives during the day and night. She is a normal girl in her Cadillac in the day while in her pink Mustang she is a prostitute driving on highways in the night. In the poem the imagery of body recurs frequently as “moving in the dust” and “every time she is touched”. The reference to woman’s body could possibly be the metaphor for the derogatory ways women’s labor, especially the physical labor is represented. The contrast between day and night possibly highlights the two contrasting ways the women are represented in society.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of I Dreamed I Moved Among The Elysian Fields

    998 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Comparison And Contrast The Representation Of Women In Tartuffe

    1967 Words  | 4 Pages

    Pinchwife’s adopts a relatively relaxed attitude being ‘cuckolded’ despite his jealousy; he employs exaggeration to ridicule women in London; he tells Margery ‘Ay, my Dear, you must love me only, and not be like the naughty town women, who only hate their husbands.’ (2.1.79-80) ‘Ay’ show the distress he is experiencing due to his tremendous jealosy, He attempts to control the fool Margery by criticising women of the ‘town’ He describes women of London as ‘naughty’ as they cuckold their husbands. They are not ‘good’ wives and they are not controlled by their husbands. This gives the reader an insight on the role of women in the male social power exchange.

    Read More

  • Examination of Women's Friendships through an Analysis of Katherine Philips' Friendship's Mystery

    4227 Words  | 9 Pages

    concern to men of the seventeenth century. Out of the oppressive setting of the seventeenth century

    Read More

  • Analysis of Ralegh's Nature, that washed her hands in milk

    846 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...s known to outlast flesh once a body has died. Time spoils the insides of the mistress, as well; he “doth dull each lively wit,/And dries all wantonness with it” (29-30). The poet’s preservation of the order of creation and demolition helps to present Time as a methodical destructive force. Time is in no hurry to get rid of the mistress or beauty, but he certainly will perform his task to completion. Careful word choices and syntax aid Ralegh’s depiction of Time, as well. Reading “Nature, that washed her hands in milk” feels like a lesson and a story at the same time because the syntax is short and to the point. Each stanza ends with a rhyming couplet, giving a self-contained feeling to each phrase, which lends to the aphoristic feel of the poem. Both Ralegh’s plain style and his use of parallel structure serve as vehicles to convey the meaning of his poem.

    Read More

  • Comparison of how The Flea and To His Coy Mistress Present and Develop the Poets' Arguments

    2016 Words  | 5 Pages

    The poets integrated ?metaphysical conceits? as focal parts of these poems. Along with these, they used effective language as a basis for their convincing arguments, they included subjects of periodical importance (e.g. ?courtship? and ?religion?), and use very clever structures that are manipulated in order to make the poem read in the desired way. The very clear indication of the theme in question was strongly aided by the way in which the personas portrayed the emotions they felt and the way they showed their attitudes towards the subject. Considering all these factors, the poets made critical arguments to the mistresses in order to alter their views, thus changing their minds, on denying the poets the sex that they desired so strongly.

    Read More

  • Homosexuality In Catullus Poetry

    888 Words  | 2 Pages

    Classical literature is well-known for its expression of homosexuality. Latin love poetry reflects this, as love poetry relies on the author’s vulnerability. Homosexuality, though not entirely accepted at the time, was a practice that remained almost exclusively among the wealthy. People were aware of the pueri delicati that frequented the households of the rich. The manifestation of this idea in literature is best represented by Neoteric poetry and, more specifically, Catullus. Catullus utilizes his poetry as a means of showing his affection, whether for friends or lovers, and as a means of reflecting the condition of Roman society.

    Read More

  • The Wife of Bath: Illustrating Courtly Love

    960 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” is written in an entertaining and adventurous spirit, but serves a higher purpose by illustrating the century’s view of courtly love. Hundreds, if not thousands, of other pieces of literature written in the same century prevail to commemorate the coupling of breathtaking princesses with lionhearted knights after going through unimaginable adventures, but only a slight few examine the viability of such courtly love and the related dilemmas that always succeed. “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” shows that women desire most their husband’s love, Overall, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” shows that the meaning of true love does not stay consistent, whether between singular or separate communities and remains timeless as the depictions of love from this 14th century tale still hold true today.

    Read More

  • Commentary on the Poem Child and Insect

    1024 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the stage being the first stanza of the poem Child and Insect the reader meets a little boy who is excited and euphoric because he has managed to catch a grasshopper. The rhythm of the poem is very fast and lively. An evidence for that is the onomatopoeia “clockwork fizz” which describes the insect’s movements as sudden and quick, comparing its legs to the hands of a clock too. It also illustrates its desperate attempts to escape the small palm of the boy described by the opening line of the first stanza “He cannot hold his hand huge enough.” Furthermore, not only the grasshopper’s movements are swift but the boy’s motions as well, shown by the run on line “He races back, how quick he is, look”. This line further emphasizes the rhythm of the poem and the energetic mood it creates. The run on line could also be interpreted as a representation of the child’s speech which is cut and uneven because of his cheerfulness and need for a breath. Moreover, the word choices of the author particularly words such as “snatched”, “quick”, “look”, “sudden” help to reinf...

    Read More

  • To His Coy Mistress

    832 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • To His Coy Mistress Essay: Imagery, Symbolism, and Descriptions

    1160 Words  | 3 Pages

    Andrew Marvell in his poem describes a young man convincing his fair mistress to release herself to living in the here and now.  He does this by splitting the poem up into three radically different stanzas.  The first takes ample time to describe great feelings of love for a young lady, and how he wishes he could show it.  The idea of time is developed early but not fully.  The second stanza is then used to show how time is rapidly progressing in ways such as the fading of beauty and death.  The third stanza presses the question to the young mistress; will she give herself to the young man and to life?  Although each stanza uses different images, they all convey the same theme of living life to the fullest and not letting time pass is seen throughout. Marvell uses imagery, symbolism, and wonderful descriptions throughout the poem.  Each stanza is effective and flows easily.  Rhyming couplets are seen at the ends of every line, which helps the poem read smoothly.

    Read More

  • Comparison of ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ and ‘My Last Duchess’

    1236 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Speaker in ‘My Last Duchess’ is conversing with the servant of a count whose daughter he is proposing to marry. He treats t...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Sonnet 7 How Soon Hath Time

    1368 Words  | 3 Pages

    Its structure – with the sequence of circles fading down infinitely – mirrors the immeasurable quality of time. Simultaneously, one of the procedures of my deformation involved reflecting that limitlessness in the way the poem is read. For instance, you can start reading the poem, and see this ungrammatical sequence of words: “measure Time soon slow youth three days late twentieth year”. Alternatively, the reader should be able to form smaller sequences that tie up together. For instance: “measure Time”, “slow youth”, “three days late”, “late twentieth year”, or even, depending on the readership, to re-think the position of some words in order to form different sequences. For instance the reader might fashion these sequences out of the word “Time”: 1) “fly Time” or “Time thief” or “fly Time thief”. As you are reading the deformed poem, you should be reminded of Milton’s original verses from “How Soon Hath Time”; verses which are grammatically correct. It is suiting that Prof. Jeffrey Robinson’s remarkable observation applies to this example - “as we read, we picture it in glimpses; we recognize it, but strangely.” I recycled words like “stol’n” and “arriv’d” from the original text, and used them in peculiar sequences with one another, in order to pop into the mind of the reader immediately and

    Read More

  • Formalistic Approach To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell

    983 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... is romantic and at ease, but he turns brisk and honest as time disintegrates. This image becomes crystal clear with words and phrases such as, "heart", "beauty", "youthful hue sits on thy skin", "our sweetness", "virginity", "breast", and "pleasures". All of these words provide the reader with an illustration of the man's desires. The use of imagery permits the author to fully describe the necessity of time, and allows the reader to visualize the thoughts and feelings that the characters experience.

    Read More

More about His Coy Mistress

Open Document