Marvell's uses the third person 'His' in his title of the poem and doesn't use 'my' suggesting that he may not want to make the poem personal to himself. He may be writing this poem for other men that have a 'coy mistress' because he might think that they will be coming across these problems too. However, the body of the poem is written in the first and second person suggesting that his love addresses his lady directly.
In his first verse, he says 'Had we but world and time', which suggests that he is setting up a condition and then taking everything back before giving it. The use of 'would' in line 3 shows his lavish forms of courtship that he 'would' but will not be happy to perform. The alliteration of 'long love' and repetition of elongated vowel sounds like 'o' helps the rhythm of the poem to flow more smoothly and gives the poem a soft romantic touch.
Marvell shows his intelligence by referring to exotic places for instance the 'Indian Ganges' in his poem. He also uses biblical references like 'before the flood', which is supposed to represent the idea of Noah's Ark and how a big storm came causing a 'flood' and animals dieing. These hyperboles that he uses which also include phrases like 'an hundred years,' 'two hundred,' and 'thirty thousand,' is so that he can exaggerate his feelings and emotions.. And you should, if you please, refuse, Till the conversion of the Jews;' This states that he would not complain about waiting to reveal his love and would even wait until the conversion of the Jews implying in a very anti-Semitic view, that this would never happen.
In this section, he uses the values of ten years to imply how long he would wait before he would reveal his love. The use of numbers, is continual for the rest of this section, 'Two hundred to adore each breast' and 'But thirty thousand to the rest', showing how he would not care how long he would have to wait to reveal his love as he could spend forever gazing upon his lovers' beauty, 'Nor would I love at lower rate.
The final thing to notice in this section is the implicit phallic (sexual) joke, 'My vegetable love should grow' showing this idea of teasing and humour throughout the first section. The second section begins at 'But at my back I always hear' and ends at 'But none, I think, do these embrace. The first two lines: 'But at my back I always hear, Times winged chariot hurrying hear' Immediately the first section is reversed and inverted, stating that this is not reality and that death, times winged chariot, is catching up with them. And that after death, 'And yonder all before us lie, Deserts of vast eternity.' There is nothing, giving an agnostic view that there is no heaven or hell..
The next line, 'Thy beauty shall no more be found', saying that you will be beautiful when alive but when dead no one would be able to see that beauty. On line 26, there is a caesura, (short pause) halfway through the line just after 'My echoing song…' as the next section uses even greater shocking imagery: '…then worms shall try. That long-preserved virginity, And your greater honour turn to dust,. And into ashes all my lust:' He is saying that after death no one will be able to get to you but the worms and that her honour in preserving her virginity is going to be worth nothing when she's dead. Through use of penetrating words and displeasing imagery, he is able to shock his lover. And that, even though, death may be peaceful, 'The grave's a fine and private place, but none, I think do these embrace.' no one will be able to love her when she's dead. So as to remove the seriousness from the last section, the final section uses delicate ironic understanding to persuade her that love is a positive thing. In the final section the word therefore is used to make the act of love seem logical and right. The first two lines state that: 'now therefore, while the youthful hue, Sits on my skin like morning dew,’. This shows that, through the definition of fresh moist skin that the soul wants to come out. This is further shown in the next lines: 'And while thy willing soul transpires, With every pore with instant fires, Again stating that inside her, her soul is burning for her to lose her virginity.
In the next line, 'Now let us sport us while we may,' the writer is stating that they should not wait to make love, but go for it now. The line, 'Our sweetness up into one ball,' defines the ball as a perfect shape showing the perfection of love. The penultimate lines, 'And tear our pleasures like rough strife through the iron gates of life;' shows that he will break through any barriers to get to what they want. And in the final line, 'Thus, though we can not make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.' once again stating that even though you can not stop time, you can make it race, and commit to love as quickly as possible.
As already mentioned, Christopher Marlowe's The Passionate Shepherd gives a very unrealistic, simple, almost dream-like view of life in the countryside. This simplicity is further seen in the simplicity of form used throughout the poem, using stanzas and simple rhyming couplets throughout. 'And we will sit upon the rocks, and see the shepherds feed their flocks by shallow rivers, to whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals.'
The lack and absence of sexual form in the poem is shown in how he is unable to properly portray a heterosexual relationship. The title 'The Passionate Shepherd to his Love', through the use of Passionate identifies that the relationship is full of feeling and is not just at a sexual level. The first line of the poem, 'Come live with me and be my Love,' uses totally mono-syllabic words showing simplicity in the offer being made, thus showing how simple the act of love is and how simple it is to give up all you have for the one you have. The next three lines of this verse are: 'And we will all the pleasures prove that hills and valleys, dales and fields, Or woods or steepy mountain yields’. This depicts, incorrectly, that all the riches and pleasures of high quality living can be found in nature. This reinforces a dream-like world where nature is perfect and is a simple luxury. This is further shown in the next verse. In the first line, 'And we will sit upon the rocks,' something that is meant to be uncomfortable is made out to be nice and comfortable, reinforces the falseness of this poem. The next line, 'And see the shepherds feed their flocks' shows benefits without input, depicting the writer isn't even a shepherd but a rich man pretending to be poor. The third line, 'By shallow rivers, to whose falls' is once again showing in a false statement that nature is safe, shown in the fact that the river is made out to be shallow and safe.
Finally, in the fourth line 'Melodious birds sing madrigals.' Madrigals are complicated songs sung by aristocrats at court, not by birds in the country. These first two paragraphs have created an obviously fake, almost dream-like depiction of 'rural paradise'. This is very traditional of the Court Pastoral Tradition of writing as it gives the reader, mainly aristocrats a type of sophisticated poetry fanaticising a simple life, something that most aristocrats liked the idea of as it allowed them to experience the simplicity of rural life without the removal of the creature comforts they are used to.
The third, fourth and fifth verses combine this idea of natural perfection with the riches of an aristocratic way of life, combining the simple and sophisticated, embellishing the natural with riches from the countryside: 'A cap of flowers, and a kirtle (a type of shirt/gown), Embroidered with leaves of myrtle.’ A belt of straw and ivy-buds, with coral clasps and amber studs' At the end of the paragraph, the writer asks: 'And if these pleasures thee may move, Come live with me and be my Love.' This states that if she lives with him, he will be able to give her everything to make her live perfect. The repetition of the final line and the simplicity of it are used to show how easy it is to give up all she has for love.
On first scrutiny of the final verse: 'The shepherds swain shall dance and swing, For thy delights each May morning: If these delights thy mind may move,. Then live with me and be my love. It seems that it will be happy day when the writer's love decides to live with him, the May morning historically being a day to declare ones love. On closer inspection, in the third sentence, the word mind is very important. This word shows that the whole persuasion of the poem is actually conceived and imaginary, possibly even a deliberately conceived dream to show off and manipulate the writer's lover, the gender unknown due to the homosexual nature of the writer.
The poem, even though it may seem so far-fetched and imaginary, would have been very successful. It was aimed at aristocrats, the main readers at the time (education still meant most common people could not read or write), using Court Pastoral Tradition, very popular amongst aristocrats as it combined sophisticated living with the simplicity of the country.
Throughout this time period many other writers shared the same view or were against it. “Women to her lover” by Christina Walsh, “The Beggar Women” William King and “Sonnet 130” William Shakespeare all have their own views. “A women to her lover”, shares a more dominant view on the feminine side, it talks about a women getting her revenge on a man.
