In the last section, he gives his solution and his conclusion. He is persuading her again to have sex with him eagerly - ‘Now let us sport us while we may’. While they are still young, let’s grab the time and do what we can before life decays. Here, it refers to ‘carpe diem’- seize the day.
This poem rhymes in couplets- ‘…time/…crime’; ‘…way/…day’. There is lots of hyperbole in the poem. Marvell writes about the flood which refers to Noah’s story belonging to Genesis in Bible. He talks about the’ conversion’ of Jews. The conversion of Jews to Christianity would occur just before the end of the world (time). These two religious references imply that his mistress could reject him for all of the time without damaging his love for her.
There are metaphors in the poem. ‘Vegetable love’ – His love is like a vegetable, which will grow slowly. This also implies it needs time to grow. ‘Vaster than empires and more slow’ - his love is big enough to fill all time and space. However, at the second section, he says ‘Time’s winged chariot hurrying near.’ Time will grow but human’s life is short, therefore their time is very short indeed. Here is a paradox of Time, as time causes growth which also causes decay. Similar to ‘vegetable’; it will grow but there is a point which it will stop growing and decay.
He flatters her ‘An age at least to praise every part’. The man would spend lots of years praising every part of her body. Marvell is following poetic convention as it was common in poetry of this time to praise the eyes, forehead and breasts. ‘Deserts of vast eternity’ is referring to the endless time that exists beyond death. There is a horrible image of death as he says ‘… worms shall try/ that long preserved virginity’. The worms are compared to a penis. The man is frightening the woman as well as persuasion. Marvell uses the phrase ‘ashes to ashes and dust to dust’. It is a Christian reference to the creation of the first people - Adam and Eve, whom God fashioned out of clay (dust). Marvell also plays with this phrase that the woman’s honour will turn to ‘dust’ and the man’s lust will be into ‘ashes’. There is no love in the grave. There is a pun in the poem - ‘quaint’ means over-subtle which also can refer to the word ‘queynte’ which was an old medieval word meaning pudendum, a woman’s private parts. The man is referring to the ultimate decay of her over-subtle and her sexual parts.
At the first and second section, the man presents himself as ‘I’ and the woman as ‘you’. He also presents her as a bit prudish. At the last section, he refers to himself and the woman as ‘we’, implying that they are joined together.
At the third section, it is full of passion and lust. The ‘instant fires’ relate to the heat of passion. ‘Sport’ means energetic exercise and ‘devour’- they will consume the time without thought or ceremony. The tone quickly changes from the midsection. It changes from melancholy to anticipation.
In addition an epicurean philosophy enters at the last section. Epicurean is the belief in physical pleasure and freedom of pain as significant goals for human life. In this poem, Marvell says that while they are still living, they should have fun and do what they can. ‘And tear our pleasures… through the iron gates of life’. They should overcome the negative forces, seize the day.
There is irony in this poem; Marvell has already told us there is no time between the man and the woman at the first line of the poem. Everything about how many years he will praise her body and how long he will wait for her to have sex with him is ironic. He says ‘an age at least to (praise) every part’. Marvell also mocks at her coyness as it needs time to let her coyness grow into maturity, but the growth will lead to decomposition. He is persuading the girl to give in her coyness and her modesty as he thinks there is no point to keep her ’virginity’ and be unco-operative.
There is alliteration throughout the poem. ‘We would sit down, and which way /to walk…’ the alliteration on the ‘w’s slows the pace down and this is succeeded by the sensuous alliteration and assonance in the phrase ‘our long love’s day’.
‘The Ruined Maid’ is an ironic poem. Irony is a form of humour. It is about a woman who has lost her chastity and has been condemned by society as being ‘ruined’. She has met her old friend in the town, who is a ‘raw country girl’. The country girl is ‘bewitched’ by her ‘prosperity’ and ‘fair garments’. She compares her present life to her past life. The ruined maid used to be very poor and melancholic. She used to be a country girl who wore ‘tatters’ and spoke with a country accent. Now she is well off, speaks well and dresses well. In the poem, she seems to be a prostitute and has left her home to live in the town. She seems to be quite proud of herself being ‘ruined’- she feels no shame at her loss of reputation, because she is happy and well-off financially.
The poem rhymes regularly. In the last line of each stanza, she tells the country girl that she is ‘ruined’ which emphasizes the irony. Hardy is exposing the hypocrisy of Victorian society in blaming prostitution. Society influences the public view that a young lady had to be chaste and have a high degree of modesty and strong moral values. If a woman were to fail from this high state, she was said to be ruined and was condemned by the public.
Hardy satirises this judgement and shows the readers that prostitutes - ruined women - may in fact be happy and fairly rich. Their high incomes and freedom may have made them the first feminists. He teases that while society might have considered them as immoral, men were still paying the prostitutes for the poem exposes the hypocrisy as Hardy points out that, the men who were strongly against the prostitutes might well be the men who had sex with them.
There is lots of alliteration in the poem. Like ‘thikoon… theasoon… t’other’; ’blue and bleak’; ‘megrims or melancholy’. There is simile -‘Your hands were like paws’. At the final stanza, the country girl admires the ruined maid and I get the feeling that she might prefer to be ruined too.
Comparing the two poems, they both talk about women’s chastity. Society has hardly changed. Young women should have a high degree of modesty and keep their virginity. Both poems think differently about reputation. In Coy Mistress the man tries to persuade the girl to abandon her coyness and her modesty. He points out that their time is very short. In the ruined maid, the ruined lady feels no shame at being ruined. She points out it is good for her.
In Coy Mistress, the young woman keeps her virginity and refuses to have sex with the man. She thinks of her reputation. In the Ruined Maid, the woman has lost her virginity and is condemned by society. In society, the coy girl is doing the right thing to reject the man’s desire, whereas the ruined maid is blamed and ashamed. In reality, the coy mistress is actually quite sad as the man cannot have sex with her due to the courtship game; whereas the ruined maid is joyful and has a better life. She feels proud of being a prostitute. In Coy Mistress, the tone is lustful and changes mood while the ruined maid has irony throughout the whole poem.
In conclusion, I feel quite surprised if I were the coy mistress, reading this kind of poem. It is more lustful than romantic. The overall poem is sad more than joyful. The midsection is not favourable as he mentions about death. Although he is flattering the girl, there is too much exaggeration. However, Marvell is saying the truth, that our time and lives are very short. He points out the paradox of time - growth or decay? At last, he makes a solution that they should have sex now; otherwise it will be too late. Overall, I think the poem is not quite successful at persuading a modern lady. It may be a clever and sophisticated piece of argument in the 17th century. His intelligent writing style of the paradox of time and all the imagery might have impressed the coy mistress. However, the mistress might be a rich woman and she might be happy with her present life while she keeps her virginity. In general, the man is the one who is disappointed if he cannot have sex with her.
In the ruined maid, Hardy is quite successful in teasing society’s hypocrisy in condemning prostitution. One may have a better life and better position as a prostitute. However, in my opinion, I think reputation is an important thing for women. I would tease the ruined maid as well. I would rather be a poor country girl than a prostitute. Even if she has a better life and is rich, she is totally shameful and condemned by the public. Losing her virginity is an indignity, as is being as ‘ruined’. Not only should the prostitutes be blamed, but also the men who pay them for sex should be humiliated. The men’s reputation should also be ruined.
