Poetry Commentary on To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell
In the poem To His Coy Mistress, Andrew Marvell reveals a man’s sexual feelings towards a woman. The poem, essentially, regards relationships between the sexes and encompasses the male desire for sex, as throughout the piece, the speaker attempts to persuade a young lady to have sex with him. Certainly, the poem itself is rich with metaphysical conceits as well as its depiction of the carpe diem theme, and is notable for its playful and explicit treatment of sex, its full control of tone and pace, together with its precision in wording. With the employment of several motifs, strong imagery, poetic figures, rhyme and meter, the poet is able to build an incredibly emotional persuasion.
In the first stanza, Marvell makes use of the metaphysical conceit and begins with the tactic of impressing and flattering his lover as a means of persuasion for sex. Here, he claims that because he has all of eternity, he will spend lavish amounts of time courting and praising his mistress as she is worthy of such an act. However, already in the first line, the poet employs irony by using the word “Had”, setting this section of the poem in subjunctive tense, as it affirms that the lovers will not live forever. Instead, this implies that they do not have all the time in the world, and that the speaker is in fact aware of this even before he begins his flattery. Hence, we see that the speaker will discuss how he would treat his mistress if they had unlimited time. Here, we also become aware of the meter and rhyme present in the poem – the poem is comprised of rhyming couplets and iambic tetrameter, which is maintained throughout the entire poem. Marvell proceeds to accomplish his objective by reassuring his lover that “this coyness, lady, were no crime” (L.2) as nothing stands in between their love since, supposedly, they have all of eternity to pursue it, and so she can have all the time she needs to decide whether or not she desires to engage with him. Despite the meter present in the first two lines of the poem, the poet also employs commas in order to create a pausing effect, interrupting himself to show his easiness with the slow passage of time: “(…) world enough, and time, / (…) coyness, lady, were no crime,” (L.1-2). Also, by suggesting for the lovers to “sit down, and think which way / to walk” (L.3 – 4) for them to “pass [their] long love’s day” (L.4), the poet emphasizes the concepts of time and space. Clearly, the poet offers a striking amount of alliteration in this first stanza, as it is used in each of the first four lines: “We…would” (L.1), “coyness…crime” (L.2), “we would…which way” (L.3) and “long…love” (L.4). By doing this, his words seem more alluring when wooing his lover, as it adds playfulness to the poem itself. The poet proceeds to refer to world geography, as a means of impressing and pleasing his lover not only through his diction – “the Indian Ganges” (L. 5) and “Humber” (L.7) – but also through his use of strong images, as he makes her imagination wander to rivers both near and far. The employment of exotic imagery also aids this process, as he affirms that “by the Indian Ganges’ side / Should’st rubies find” (L. 5 – 6). By providing images which are more tempting than any domestic sight in England, which is where both lovers are from, it entices the woman, as it leads her to believe that committing to him will take her to new places and live through plenty of fascinating new experiences. Also, in addition to geography, the poet alludes to biblical history by mentioning “the flood” (L.8), a section of the Genesis in the Bible, as a way of emphasizing his worldliness and intellect. Still asserting religious history, the speaker makes reference to the conversion of the Jews, as a way of affirming that his lover can refuse to have sex with him “till the conversion of the Jews” (L.10). Both of these religious references are not only a way of assuring his lover that he would love and appreciate her for an extended period of time before physically engaging with her, but also a way to develop the concept of time; this is because most of the Jews, in actual fact, never, or have not yet converted to Christianity, showing that she has a lot of time to make her decision. Marvell proceeds to offer a metaphor, in which he compares his love to vegetable growth. Evidently, this comparison is somewhat ironic as it is in the conditional tense, because vegetative growth is slow and unconscious, while his impassioned love grows rapidly and intentionally as he is aware of his limited time. To develop this thought, the poet underlines the insignificance of the rate of growth of their love, and emphasizes the sheer size of the growth of his love, by claiming that his “vegetable love should grow / vaster than empires and more slow” (L.11-12). Once again, the exotic imagery of empires provided here serves to tantalize his mistress. Subsequently, there is a clear shift in objective: the speaker now wants to praise more than impress. In this regard, the poet moves from clear amounts of time, respectively “An hundred years (…)” (L.13), to inconceivable amounts - all to make the woman believe that he is devoted, as well as fascinated with her body, or simply her presence. Consequently, the speaker’s numbers only increase, concluding by asking her to envision thirty thousand years, until it requires “an age… to every part” (L.17). Following this, the poet makes reference to their love on a long-term basis, by stating that when the heat of sexual fervor subsides, then one can only hope to be left with an authentic person because “the last age should show your heart” (L.18). Proceeding, the poet clarifies that his lover is worthy of “this state” (L.19), meaning that he is committed to the conquest of satisfying her, and although it may take years for her to accept, he would be willingly to take things slower with her because “nor would [he] love at lower rate” (L.20).
