Elegy 8. To His Mistress Goung To Bed

Key terminology

Pattern of religious imagery

Themes

Speaker’s voice

Summary

Physical love

Mutual love

Pleasure

Desperate

Confident

Arrogant

Manipulative

The speaker is lying in bed, waiting for his lover to join him.

'temple', 'heaven's angel', 'A heaven like Mahomet's paradise'

Implies their love to be spiritual and pure. 'Mahomet's paradise' - conceit - the heaven of sexual pleasure.

Imperative + asyndetic list of prepositions.

'License my roving hands, and let them go / Behind, before above, between and below.'

Thie rlove is consensual, suggeting it to be mutual and balanced. The list alludes to the exploration of physical pleasure.

Pattern of sexual innuendos/ puns

'Is tired with standing though he never fight', 'our flesh upright'

The voice is witty and bored of waiting for her to join him in bed.

Excitement

Commanding

Witty

Pasionate