Diction and Tone
Essay: Diction and Tone in Poetry
In the field of literature, authors use various forms of writing techniques to create diction and tone. One way that the author, Andrew Marvel, of “To His Coy Mistress” uses a unique way of diction to portray several styles of tone, in which they shift from one another, through stanza to stanza. His diction creates a variety of literary styles that most authors use as a way of conveying a personal message. This diction creates a multitude of imagery that the reader can see Marvel’s elusive meaning. It also creates complex and ambiguous metaphors that raise suspicion of irony through an extensive amount of imageries. His diction creates several different tones in the three stanzas such as ribald, jarring, and lusty. But the overall the poem has a melancholic tone to it. Marvel is suggesting that the mistress should go to bed with him. This also brings up the point of carpe diem, seizing the day. Where he is pointing out that time, age, and marital status are obstacles and she must seize the day by going to bed with him before all that happens. The first stanza of the poem sets it all off for the reader. He is trying to show her the type of a romantic that he can be. In other words, he is trying to impress her through his diction. On that note the tone is insincere and ribald. The diction he uses to show imagery of getting a first impression is seen in two places in the first stanza. The first imagery is in lines 3-7 “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.” As the reader can see he is alluding to world geography. This is also an act of flattery because he is placing her in an exotic, ruby-filled location-Indian Ganges. The images we get from here are a romantic walk by the Ganges River and finding rubies. He is flattering her by giving her a materialistic valuable object that is heavily prized.
In the field of literature, authors use various forms of writing techniques to create diction and tone. One way that the author, Andrew Marvel, of “To His Coy Mistress” uses a unique way of diction to portray several styles of tone, in which they shift from one another, through stanza to stanza. His diction creates a variety of literary styles that most authors use as a way of conveying a personal message. This diction creates a multitude of imagery that the reader can see Marvel’s elusive meaning. It also creates complex and ambiguous metaphors that raise suspicion of irony through an extensive amount of imageries. His diction creates several different tones in the three stanzas such as ribald, jarring, and lusty. But the overall the poem has a melancholic tone to it. Marvel is suggesting that the mistress should go to bed with him. This also brings up the point of carpe diem, seizing the day. Where he is pointing out that time, age, and marital status are obstacles and she must seize the day by going to bed with him before all that happens. The first stanza of the poem sets it all off for the reader. He is trying to show her the type of a romantic that he can be. In other words, he is trying to impress her through his diction. On that note the tone is insincere and ribald. The diction he uses to show imagery of getting a first impression is seen in two places in the first stanza. The first imagery is in lines 3-7 “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.” As the reader can see he is alluding to world geography. This is also an act of flattery because he is placing her in an exotic, ruby-filled location-Indian Ganges. The images we get from here are a romantic walk by the Ganges River and finding rubies. He is flattering her by giving her a materialistic valuable object that is heavily prized.