Hello and welcome to the Discourse. ‘To His Coy Mistress’ is a metaphysical poem by Andrew Marvell written around the end of the English Interregnum (1649-1660). Due to political controversy and the popular tradition of manuscript circulation, most of Andrew Marvell’s poetry was not published during his lifetime. ‘To His Coy Mistress’ was first published posthumously in 1681.
Andrew Marvell is often associated with the 17th-century school of English metaphysical poets, including John Donne, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Robert Southwell, and Richard Crashaw. Metaphysical poetry is known for using elaborate figurative language, original conceits, paradoxes, and philosophical topics. Metaphysical poetry is like a puzzle, where the poet challenges the reader to think deeply about life’s big questions—love, death, and the divine—using clever metaphors and surprising comparisons to reveal new perspectives.
‘To His Coy Mistress’ is a beautiful love poem based on a gentleman wooing his mistress to make love with him. It is a carpe diem poem in which the speaker attempts to convince his beloved to seize the day and act on her passion.
Structure of ‘To His Coy Mistress’: The poem consists of 46 lines in rhyming iambic tetrameter couplets. Though metaphysical poets often preferred iambic pentameter or the Heroic couplet, Marvell used iambic tetrameter in this poem which offers a lighter, faster, and playful pace to the poem. There are a few metrical deviations in the poem. Using iambic tetrameter in place of Heroic couplets suggests that the poem is not quite as serious as a poem on a heroic subject should be.
The poem is organized in rhyming couplets and each couplet has its own rhyme, that is, the poem is composed in closed couplet form, and hence, each first line of the couplets rhymes with the next line and hence the rhyming scheme is (AABBCCDD….)
The poet used Metaphor, Hyperbole, Alliteration, Personification, Symbolism, Enjambment, Apostrophe, Caesura, and Allusion in the poem. The speaker is an anonymous lover trying to seduce his love. The speaker may be the poet’s mask trying to convince his "mistress" that she should make love with him. The poet uses many Metaphysical conceits such as comparing coyness and crime, vegetables and love, and time and chariot.
While the poem appears to be a simple seductive piece, it does have a spiritual aspect of its own. It was probably written at the beginning of the Age of Restoration, and it suggests the poet's break-free enthusiasm against the shackles of Puritanism during the interregnum. The poem also indicates the British mindset of colonialism and expansion during that era, as the poet mentions the ‘Indian Ganges’ in the first stanza.
Summary of To His Coy Mistress:
The poem is written in closed couplet form, it can be divided into three parts or stanzas. The first stanza contains 20 lines or ten couplets in which the speaker cajoles his lady to give in to his sexual advances. In the next 12 lines or the second stanza, the speaker shows his urgency and tries to instill fear of death in his lover’s heart. In the last stanza, the speaker again changes his tone to a lighter mood and says that he has a solution against the ephemeral nature of life, and they should embrace each other while they are young and living, without worrying about the future.
Stanza 1 Lines 1-20
“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
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.
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,
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.”
The speaker begins by creating various metaphysical conceits to suggest how he would love his lady love if the two lovers indeed had enough time. He suggests that if the two of them had ample time, if they were immortals, then his lover’s shyness and hesitation might have been acceptable. But since they are mortals, her coyness is comparable to a crime.
He then playfully imagines that the two have enough time, then they could have walked past the ‘Indian Ganges’ collecting rubies on its bank. The speaker then alludes to the Biblical flood narrated in the Book of Genesis (Allegory) and says that he could have loved his lady from ten years before the flood and she could refuse his advances up until the “conversion of the Jews,” which again is a Biblical reference to the end of time.
The speaker then uses a Metaphysical conceit ‘vegetable love’ suggesting that if they had enough time, his love could have grown slowly, but to a vast proportion (‘Vaster than empires’). The speaker indicates the phallic expansion. This slower rate of expansion would have allowed him to love and appreciate each and every part of his lover’s body, eyes, forehead, breasts, and heart for hundreds of years. He then says that his lady is indeed beautiful enough to deserve such a timeless appreciation and he would certainly have loved her at the same rate, he would never value her at a “lower rate” than she deserves, at least in an ideal world where time is unlimited.
Stanza 2 Lines 21-32
“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;
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;
The grave’s a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.”
In this stanza, the speaker abruptly exclaims that they are not living in the idealized timeless world. He pleads to the lady that there is not enough time, and whatever time they have, is passing by swiftly as he hears ‘time’s winged chariot hurrying near,’ he alludes to Greek mythology. He says that though her lover deserves all the praise and love till eternity, he doesn’t have enough time to worship her as he sees fit; time is always hurrying closer and closer. ‘Deserts of vast eternity’ await them, and her beauty will fade, her virginity will ‘turn to dust’ along with her honor, and all the waiting will be worthless. He continues to praise the lady's virtues but suggests that her limitless virtues are nothing against the radical limits of the time of their life. Once dead, he assures the Lady, that her virtues and beauty will lie in the grave along with her body as it turns to dust. He also mentions that his own lust for her will also turn into ashes with no chance for the two lovers to embrace each other.
Stanza 3 Lines 33-46
“Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
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-chapped power.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Through the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.”
After offering insights about the time limits, the speaker changes the tone and seduces the lady again. The poet uses another Metaphysical conceit, comparing the Lady’s skin to a vibrant layer of morning dew that is animated by the fires of her soul and encourages her to “sport” with him “while we may.” He then compares the two lovers with ‘amorous birds of prey,’ suggesting the intensity of their natural passion for each other. He again encourages the lady to embrace him and ‘roll all our strength’ into ‘one ball.’ He offers his lady to make such a rough love that may tear their pleasurable passion “through the iron gates of life.’ Or, raising their passion above human life and time constraints.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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