To His Coy Mistress, Andrew Marvell Analysis

Andrew Marvell: Final Essay It has been said that To His Coy Mistress is more about acting on the carpe diem ideal, than it is about love & lust. To what extent do you think this is true? Andrew Marvell was a 17th century English poet, parliamentarian and satirist. He belonged to a group commonly known as“ the metaphysical poets” which included/involved several famous poets such as John Donne or George Herbert. Their style was characterized by their unusual use of language to explore the vast questions about love, the carnal intercourse, the earth, the universe, the divine, the idea of existence or the truth just to mention a few. The use of images and word play revealed these complex ideas and feelings through wit, irony and humour especially in the surprising metaphors and similes, but also in the metaphysical conceits. Andrew Marvell in this metaphysical line, explored the carpe diem ideal and the theme of love and lust in his poem To His Coy Mistress, first published in 1681. His poem is the monologue of a man who woos his mistress by pressing her to give into a carnal intercourse (which bears the idea of love and lust), because time pursues them and the end seems near. We will consider each of these themes, in order to define if To His Coy Mistress is more about acting on the carpe diem ideal than it is about love and lust. In the first place, it would be evident

  • Word count: 1455
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" - review

As depicted in Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress," for the best affection to flourish between a couple, love must be embraced at its greatest point during the prime of youth and life. The first stanza of the poem, via numerous romantic suggestions, gives the impression that infinite and timeless love can prosper between two consenting lovers. As the poem opens, the speaker's heart tells the object of its desire that once its love is requited, time and majesty will stand still as they endure the simple pleasures in life. Speaking of "passing our long love's day" (4) as a metonym for an actual eternity of a rich love, Marvell surely marvels his prospective lady as he argues that every singly day of their life together could hold an array of joys in a long and plentiful assortment. Continuing on the path to eternal love, an array of imagery begins to awe any prospective lady by further implying that every moment after embracing his love will contain similar blessings as the poet contends that they could walk along the exotic river of "Ganges' side" (5). As if he had not offered enough, the marvelous poet further adds a piece to the imagery-packed picture by saying that along the trek, his lady would "rubies find" (6), and therefore he implies that as well as sophisticated mental pleasures like walking along a beautiful river, his lady shall enjoy the most base yet desired

  • Word count: 1506
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Men and women often think, and behave differently in relation to love. Write about 'to his coy mistress' and 'our love now', comparing how poets have presented men's, or women's attitudes

Men and women often think, and behave differently in relation to love. Write about 'to his coy mistress' and 'our love now', comparing how poets have presented men's, or women's attitudes 'To his coy mistress' was written in the seventeenth century, society then was patriarchal - where males were dominant - and women had little power or status, other than being the wives of rich, powerful men. Also, in this era, men were derogatory towards women, the women were seen as possessions of men, and as mere sexual prey. In the twentieth century, where 'our love now' was written, there is now an egalitarian society, brought on by feminism. In today's era, women are financially, and politically independent, 'our love now' is reflective of this. 'To is coy mistress' is one sided, and male dominated. The poets aim of the poem is to persuade his mistress to sleep with him, and is written in first (singular and plural) person. 'Our love now' is a male voiced poem, with female opinions. It is about a man and a woman who have opposing opinions to their relationship, and problems, which through this they could face. 'To his coy mistress' uses many rhetorical devices, including hyperbole (exaggeration) e.g. 'a hundred years should go to praise two hundred to each breast but thirty thousand to the rest. This depicts that he is exaggerating her beauty, and of how much time, if he had it, that

  • Word count: 921
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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The Picture of Little T.C. in a Prospect of Flowers .

The Picture of Little T.C. in a Prospect of Flowers The civil war disrupted the very idea of the Renaissance love lyric. The idea of tenderness itself - whether as a component of love or as the sweet music of verse that expressed love. Mid-century Britain witnessed physical violence produced by radical religious ideas of spiritual tenderness so that the violence seemed to be appearing out of tenderness itself. This idea of tenderness producing pain already had its literary equivalent in the sequence of poems of Petrarch's Canzoniere. Marvell takes this literary tradition and uses it to examine the political and religious struggle taking place during his lifetime. Marvell explored the relationship of tenderness and a spiritual ideal in poems such as "On a Drop of Dew", "The Coronet", "Clorinda and Damon" and "Bermudas" but there is one poem where the Petrarchan ideals of tenderness and delicacy are most apparent. By beginning with a young girl or nymph lying in the grass, Marvell opens the poem in Petrarchan mode, just as Petrarch had first met his Laura, and where he was to return both physically and mentally in order to re-enter the paradise of meeting her and hope for her return. Indeed Marvell's poem can be read as a fairly simple witty retelling of the Petrarchan story of love describing a young girl's movement through the stages of naivety, chastity, refusal,

  • Word count: 1871
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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To what extent is it true to say that the Countryside is presented in an idealised way? Discuss in reference to "The Mower" compared to "Gardens".

A2 Eng Lit To what extent is it true to say that the Countryside is presented in an idealised way? Discuss in reference to The Mower, against Gardens AO1: Pastoral Concepts AO2: Lang, Form and Structure AO3: Alternative views AO4: Contexts-then and now The recurring theme throughout ‘The Mower, against Gardens’ is that the Garden is unnatural and tainted. It symbolises the ‘luxurious’, indulgency which man pursues. And in doing so has forgotten and left behind the natural paradise that is the Countryside. It can be argued that Marvell presents the Countryside in an idealised way, perhaps to further emphasise the impurity of the Garden. The Garden itself, in modern interpretation would connote a place of beauty and tranquillity. Marvell however looks upon the Garden as an unnatural place, the religious connotations of the Garden of Eden- a place of sin where the ‘Luxurious man’-Adam, ‘Did after him the world seduce’, fell causing the world to fall after him. This reference to the original sin plainly displays the narrators or rather Marvell’s disdain and disapproval of Gardens. The further Allusion of the idea of man being ‘luxurious’ which is another religious reference to lust- one of the seven deadly sins, serves to further highlight the fact that Marvell views the Garden as ‘adulterate’ and a combination of

  • Word count: 520
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Poems From Other Cultures

Poems From Other Cultures Introduction Both of the poems I have studied have a similar theme. The people who the poem are based on are being treated badly and are fed up at being treated like dirt. They have been treated badly for so long eventually they begin to hate the people who are mistreating them, and want to get some pay back for the way they have been treated over the years In each poem the person who is being treated does something about it. In Charlotte O'Neil's song the servant quits her job and leaves the mistress who treated her with no respect high and dry. Charlotte then immigrates to another country and leaves the trouble behind her. In the poem nothing changed. A black man is being treated badly by the white folk. He is being discriminated against because of the colour of his skin. In the concluded part of the poem the black man gets his own back on the whit people by breaking the glass of an inn he was not welcome in because of the colour of his skin. Both of the poems have powerful endings Paragraph Two The Mistresses life is full of riches she lives in Luxury. The mistress lives in a majestic mansion were she is waited on hand and foot. The lady is extremely wealthy. In thee era this poem was scripted women did not have very influential roles in the working world with very few having a job. Therefore, the rich lady is probably living off somebody

  • Word count: 1587
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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