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Theme
and Summary
“To His Coy Mistress” presents
a familiar theme in literature–carpe diem (meaning seize the
day), a term coined by the ancient Roman poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus,
known as Horace (65-8 B.C.). Here is the gist of Andrew Marvell's poem:
In response to a young man’s declarations of love for a young lady, the
lady is playfully hesitant, artfully demure. But dallying will not do,
he says, for youth passes swiftly. He and the lady must take advantage
of the moment, he says, and “sport us while we may.” Oh, yes, if they had
“world enough, and time” they would spend their days in idle pursuits,
leisurely passing time while the young man heaps praises on the young lady.
But they do not have the luxury of time, he says, for “time's wingéd
chariot” is ever racing along. Before they know it, their youth will be
gone; there will be only the grave. And so, the poet pleads his case: Seize
the day.
The
Title
The title suggests (1) that
the author looked over the shoulder of a young man as he wrote a plea to
a young lady and (2) that the author then reported the plea exactly as
the young man expressed it. However, the author added the title, using
the third-person possessive pronoun "his" to refer to the young man. The
word "coy" tells the reader that the lady is no easy catch; the word "mistress"
can mean lady, manager, caretaker, courtesan, sweetheart, and lover.
It can also serve as the female equivalent of master. In "To His
Coy Mistress," the word appears to be a synonym for lady or sweetheart.
In reality, of course, Marvell wrote the entire poem.
The
Persona (The Young Man)
Although Andrew Marvell writes
"To His Coy Mistress" in first-person point of view, he presents the poem
as the plea of another man (fictional, of course). The poet enters the
mind of the man and reports his thoughts as they manifest themselves. The
young man is impatient, desperately so, unwilling to tolerate temporizing
on the part of the young lady. His motivation appears to be carnal desire
rather than true love; passion rules him. Consequently, one may describe
him as immature and selfish.
"To
His Coy Mistress" as a Metaphysical Poem
"To His Coy Mistress," acclaimed
long after Marvell's death a masterly work, is a lyrical poem that scholars
also classify as a metaphysical poem. Metaphysical poetry, pioneered by
John Donne, tends to focus
on the following:
-
Startling comparisons or contrasts
of a metaphysical (spiritual, transcendent, abstract) quality to a concrete
(physical, tangible, sensible) object. In "To His Coy Mistress," for example,
Marvell compares love to a vegetable (Line 11) in a waggish metaphor.
-
Mockery of idealized romantic
poetry through crude or shocking imagery, as in Lines 27 and 28 ("then
worms shall try
/ That long preserved virginity').
-
Gross
exaggeration (hyperbole), as in Line 15 ("two hundred [years] to adore
each breast].
-
Expression
of personal, private feelings, such as those the young man expresses in
"To His Coy Mistress."
-
Presentation
of a logical argument, or syllogism. In "To His Coy Mistress," this argument
may be outlined as follows: (1) We could spend decades or even centuries
in courtship if time stood still and we remained young. (2)
But time passes swiftly and
relentlessly. (3) Therefore,
we must enjoy the pleasure of each other now, without further ado.
The conclusion of the argument
begins at Line 33 with "Now therefore."
Meter
and Rhyme
The poem is in iambic tetrameter,
with eight syllables (four feet) per line. Each foot consists of an unstressed
syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The last syllable of Line 1 rhymes
with the last syllable of Line 2, the last syllable of Line 3 rhymes with
the last syllable of Line 4, the last syllable of Line 5 rhymes with the
last syllable of Line 6, and so on. Such pairs of rhyming lines are called
couplets. The following two lines, which open the poem, exhibit the meter
and rhyme prevailing in most of the other couplets in the poem:
......1.................2................3..............4
Had
WE |
but WORLD
| e
NOUGH |
and TIME
......1..........
..2......... ....3...............4
This
COY |
ness LA
| dy
WERE |
no CRIME
Setting
The poem does not present
a scene in a specific place in which people interact. However, the young
man and the young lady presumably live somewhere in England (the native
land of the author), perhaps in northeastern England near the River Humber.
The poet mentions the Humber in Line 7.
Characters
Young Man: He pleads
with a young lady to stop playing hard to get and accept his love.
Young Lady: A coquettish
woman.
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To His Coy Mistress
By Andrew Marvell
Written in 1651-1652
and Published in 1681
| Text of the Poem |
Notes and Comments |
Had we but world enough,
and time,
This coyness,
Lady, were no crime.
We would sit down and think
which way
To
walk and pass our long love's day.
Thou
by the Indian Ganges' side
5
Shouldst rubies
find: I by the tide
Of Humber
would complain. I would
Love you ten years before
the Flood,
And
you should, if you please, refuse
Till
the conversion of the Jews. 10
My vegetable
love should grow
Vaster than empires, and
more slow;
An hundred years should
go to praise
Thine
eyes and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each
breast, 15
But thirty thousand to the
rest;
An age at least to every
part,
And the last age should
show your heart.
For, Lady, you deserve this
state,
Nor would I love at lower
rate. 20
But at my back
I always hear
Time's
wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us
lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more
be found, 25
Nor, in thy marble
vault, shall sound
My echoing song: then worms
shall try
That long preserved virginity,
And your quaint
honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust:
30
The grave's a fine and private
place,
But none, I think, do there
embrace.
Now therefore, while
the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning
dew,
And while thy willing soul
transpires 35
At every pore with instant
fires,
Now let us sport us while
we may,
And now, like amorous birds
of prey,
Rather at once our time
devour
Than languish in his slow-chapt
power. 40
Let us roll all our strength
and all
Our sweetness up into one
ball,
And tear our pleasures with
rough strife
Thorough
the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make
our sun 45
Stand still, yet we will
make him run. |
coyness:
evasiveness, hesitancy, modesty, coquetry, reluctance; playing hard to
get
which
. . . walk: example of enjambment (carrying the sense
of one line of verse over to the next line without a pause)
Thou,
Thine, Thy: For a guide to these and other archaic pronouns–such
as thine, thee, and thyself–click
here.
Ganges:
River in Asia originating in the Himalayas and flowing southeast, through
India, to the Bay of Bengal. The young man here suggests that the young
lady could postpone her commitment to him if her youth lasted a long, long
time. She could take real or imagined journeys abroad, even to India. She
could also refuse to commit herself to him until all the Jews convert to
Christianity. But since youth is fleeting (as the poem later points out),
there is no time for such journeys. She must submit herself to him now.
rubies:
gems that may be rose red or purplish red. In folklore, it is said that
rubies protect and maintain virginity. Ruby deposits occur in various parts
of the world, but the most precious ones are found in Asia, including Myanmar
(Burma), India, Thailand, Sri, Lanka, Afghanistan, and Russia.
Humber:
River in northeastern England. It flows through Hull, Andrew Marvell's
hometown.
Flood
. . . Jews: Resorting
to hyperbole, the young man says that his love for the young lady is unbounded
by time. He would love her ten years before great flood that Noah outlasted
in his ark (Gen. 5:28-10:32) and would still love her until all Jews became
Christians at the end of the world.
vegetable
love: love cultivated and nurtured like a vegetable so that
it flourishes prolifically
this
state: This lofty position; this dignity
Time's
wingèd chariot: In Greek mythology, the sun was personified
as the god Apollo, who rode his golden chariot from east to west each day.
Thus, Marvell here associates the sun god with the passage of time.
marble
vault: The young lady's tomb.
worms:
a morbid phallic reference
quaint:
preserved carefully or skillfully
dew:
The 1681 manuscript of the poem uses glew (not dew), apparently
as a coined past tense for glow.
transpires:
erupts, breaks out, emits, gives off
slow-chapt:
chewing or eating slowly
Thorough:
Through
Comments
Lines 5 and 6, Lines
23 and 24, Lines 27 and 28: The final stressed vowel sounds of these
pairs of lines do not rhyme, as do the final stressed vowel sounds of all
the other pairs of lines.
Three Sections of the
Poem: Lines 1-20 discuss what would happen if the young man and young
woman had unlimited time. Lines 21-32 point out that they do not have unlimited
time. Lines 33-46 urge the young woman to seize the day and submit. |
Andrew
Marvell
Andrew Marvell was born in
Winestead, South Yorkshire, England, on March 31, 1621. His father was
a minister. The family moved to Hull, in the county of Humberside, when
Andrew was three. There, he grew up and attended school. In 1639, a year
after his mother died, Marvell received a bachelor's degree from Cambridge
University's Trinity College. His father died in 1640. Between 1642 and
1646, Marvell traveled in continental Europe, visiting France, the Netherlands,
Spain, Switzerland, and Italy. In 1651, he accepted a position at Nun Appleton,
Yorkshire, as tutor to 12-year-old Mary Fairfax, the daughter Sir Thomas
Fairfax, commander of the Parliamentary army in the 1640's during the English
Civil Wars. Marvell remained in that position until 1652. While at Nun
Appleton, he wrote several of his most acclaimed poems, including "To His
Coy Mistress" and "The Garden." Between 1653 and 1657, he served as a tutor
to a ward of Oliver Cromwell, the lord protector of England, Ireland, and
Scotland during the Commonwealth period (1653-1658). Marvell had praised
Cromwell in a 1650 poem, "An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland."
In 1657, Marvell served under the great scholar and poet John Milton in
the foreign office and in 1659 was elected to Parliament to represent Hull.
Marvell was best known during his lifetime for his political achievements
and his political satires in prose and verse. His best poetry was published
in Miscellaneous Poems 1681 from a manuscript his housekeeper found
while going through his belongings shortly after his death in 1678. In
the 20th Century, critics began to acknowledge him as an outstanding poet
of his time and to acclaim "To His Coy Mistress" as a truly great poem.
T.S. Eliot presents several allusions to the poem in "The
Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."
Study
Questions and Essay Topics
-
Why does this poem, written
in the 17th Century, remain popular in the 21st Century?
-
Write an essay that analyzes
the personality and character of the young man.
-
Identify examples in the poem
of metaphor, alliteration, hyperbole, personification, and other figures
of speech.
-
Why does Marvell use the word
echoing in Line 27?
-
What is Marvell's tone (or attitude)
in Lines 31 and 32?
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