'To His Coy Mistress'
-Andrew Marvell
Literary Devices
Metaphor
Line 4- “To walk, and pass our long love’s day” he compares the life span of his and his mistress to one day
Line 11- “My vegetable love should grow”, he compares his love with slow growth of vegetables
Consonance
Line 35- The sound of /l/ in “And while thy willing soul transpires”
Imagery
Imagery is used in Lines 5, 22, 24 and Line 27+28
There is assonance in Line 9- The sound of /ou/ in “And you should, if you please, refuse”
Assonance
Hyperbole
Hyperbole is used in Line 5- “Two hundred to adore each breast”
Simile
Line 34- “Sits on thy skin like morning dew” the poet compares woman’s youthful skin to morning dew
Line 21+22- The use of enjambment shows that the poet has sketched a very vivid and realistic picture of the transience of life and his quest for love.
Enjambment
Poet
Themes
Analysis
(LiteraryDevices, 2013).
English, Metaphysical Poet
Andrew Marvell
(31 March 1621—16 August 1678) (weebly, 2020).
Poet in the renaissance era (weebly, 2020).
'To His Coy Mistress' focuses on the lustful desires of a man attempting to entice a female virgin, the mistress, into sexual intimacy.
First published in 1681- three years after Marvell's death
The poem is a tour de force, and has come to be known as a seduction poem or carpe diem (seize or pluck the day) poem.
Rhyme Scheme
The rhyming couplets are mostly full end rhyme, aabbccdd (shows a tight knit relationship)
Sex
Morality
Time
Andrew Marvell thinks that time is a villain out to get him. He wants to control time- Marvell’s poem gives us an opportunity to explore the mystery of time
If time is the super-villain of Andrew Marvell’s "To His Coy Mistress," then having sex is the super-power he needs to gain control over his enemy. But, sex isn’t so easy to come by.
The speaker presents his vision of the afterlife- he thinks that dying is the ultimate lack of control.
(Shmoop, 2008)
(Owlcation, 2020)