To His Coy Mistress And Herrick's Hidden Ideas

Hidden Meanings

(A Comparing of To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell and To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick)

Before the Renaissance, marriage was all about money which had to do with arranged marriages. This all changed during this time, and Shakespeare hit on this idea in his play of Romeo and Juliet. They became lovers not through arranged marriage, although Juliet was to be wed to another. Romeo used interesting tactics of language to get Juliet to speak to him. The literature book explains this doing as the phrase by Horace, “Carpe Diem.” Adams clarifies this term by saying, “Make the most of your opportunities. It comes rarely.” This phrase translates to seize the day. The textbook will use this as a coverup for

what two poems of this time are actually referring to. In the poems, To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell and To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick, they are similar in using the theme of time fleeing, and two males speaking to a woman who does not respond, while the poems differ to the fact that one speaks to one girl, and the other speaks to many.
Beginning, a similarity in Marvell’s Mistress and Herrick’s Virgins, is that they both use the theme of time and existence of that time on earth being a very short period.

Unbeknownst to what the textbook is trying to not let readers know about these poems, it is evident that they use this theme to try and persuade the female species to be with them. Marvell expresses in lines 21-24, “But at my back I always hear time’s winged chariot hurrying near: and yonder all before us lie deserts of vast eternity.” This implies that time flies by and it will be gone before one knows it. Time can be used in many different ways. According to Koulouthros, “Time is a tool. It can be manipulated, shared, divided, and saved.” The men in these poems are trying to point out that time is limited and you are only young once, therefore, do not let that time go to

waste.
To continue, two male poets are speaking to a woman who does not respond in Marvell’s Mistress as well as in Herrick’s Virgins.

With this in mind, one may ask, does this type of manipulation actually work? Both males are greatly trying to persuade, but is this actually effective? One may never know as clearly the woman does not respond. These males, like Romeo of Shakespeare, use language to try and convince women to do something. Often times, these women are trying to be persuaded to do something they don’t want to do. The men are very manipulative with their words, being very careful as to which words to use. This tactic of persuasion is defined by Petty as, “an active attempt by a person, group, or entity (such as a corporation), usually through some form of communication, to change a person’s mind.” Marvell uses this tactic by telling the woman he wants to be with her for forever. In Mistress line 44 it reads, “Thorough the iron gates of life.” These men know exactly what language to use to get a woman’s attention and they use it in these poems, even when the woman does not

respond.
In conclusion, the poems To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell and To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick differ in the number of girls that the poets are addressing. As mentioned above, Marvell wants to spend the rest of his life with one girl, however, Herrick has a different plan. In Herrick’s poem lines 1-4 he presents, “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, old time is still a-flying: and this same flower that smiles today tomorrow will be dying.” These lines obviously reflect back to the theme of time fleeing, yet there is one distinct difference between these words and the words of Marvell. The term rosebuds is plural, meaning he will gather and be saying these words to many females, the opposite of Marvell. Herrick could be thinking what quote McDonagh points out is an outrage that states, “Life is short. Have an affair.” While Herrick may see this as standard, he and Marvell use their language to attract different people; singular and plural females. The two poems are very similar as far as intentions, yet completely different as far as life motives.
Both Herrick and Marvell understand the idea of Carpe Diem and use this to their advantage to convince women to possibly do things they would be uncomfortable doing, They are obviously very aware with the concept that you should seize every day. As Finlayson puts it as clearly as the poets do, “The longer you put something off the harder it becomes to get around to doing what you put off.” The poets use their understanding and essence of time and speaking to women even if they do not respond to get what they want in that moment. The two men have a slightly different approach to this “Carpe Diem” saying as one speaks to one woman while the other speaks to multiple women.