To His Coy Mistress
“TO HIS COY MISTRESS” by Andrew Marvell
THEME: Time, Love and Sex
In his poem the author tries to convey that if there was enough time, he and his beloved could go on courting forever, but times goes by quickly. Therefore, as he wants her to have sex with him, he states that they must squeeze their joys to the present because there is no time to be coy and aloof.
LANGUAGE: Figurative
The poet uses figurative language to add feeling and mood to what he wants to say to his mistress. Many words such as similes, metaphors, and words that demonstrate personification, are used throughout the poem in order to convince this lady to do as we wants.
TONE:
• 1º and 3º Stanza: Comic
The author compliments her, while being comical and playful to have her trust him, because that way, as she gains more trust, she will accept the fact that she is still honorable because she will have sexual relations with a true love.
• 2º Stanza: Morbid and scared
The speaker is worried about their love and what will happen in the future if they do not share sexual pleasure.
STRUCTURAL DEVICES
Metric: Dramatic Monologue, Iambic Tetrameter
"To His Coy Mistress" takes the form of a dramatic monologue. The speaker of the poem does all the talking, which makes this a monologue, a speech by a single character. But, because he isn’t just talking to himself, but to another fictional character, the mistress, it’s "dramatic" – hence the term "dramatic monologue."
The poem’s meter is "iambic tetrameter”. An "iamb" is a unit of poetry consisting of two syllables. This unit is also called a "foot." In iambic tetrameter each line has four (tetra) such feet, or eight syllables in total. In each foot, or iamb, or pair of syllables, one syllable is stressed, while the other is not. Notice also that the poem has forty-six lines, or twenty-three pairs of lines. We call these pairs "couplets," and, in the case of "To His Coy Mistress," the two lines that make up
THEME: Time, Love and Sex
In his poem the author tries to convey that if there was enough time, he and his beloved could go on courting forever, but times goes by quickly. Therefore, as he wants her to have sex with him, he states that they must squeeze their joys to the present because there is no time to be coy and aloof.
LANGUAGE: Figurative
The poet uses figurative language to add feeling and mood to what he wants to say to his mistress. Many words such as similes, metaphors, and words that demonstrate personification, are used throughout the poem in order to convince this lady to do as we wants.
TONE:
• 1º and 3º Stanza: Comic
The author compliments her, while being comical and playful to have her trust him, because that way, as she gains more trust, she will accept the fact that she is still honorable because she will have sexual relations with a true love.
• 2º Stanza: Morbid and scared
The speaker is worried about their love and what will happen in the future if they do not share sexual pleasure.
STRUCTURAL DEVICES
Metric: Dramatic Monologue, Iambic Tetrameter
"To His Coy Mistress" takes the form of a dramatic monologue. The speaker of the poem does all the talking, which makes this a monologue, a speech by a single character. But, because he isn’t just talking to himself, but to another fictional character, the mistress, it’s "dramatic" – hence the term "dramatic monologue."
The poem’s meter is "iambic tetrameter”. An "iamb" is a unit of poetry consisting of two syllables. This unit is also called a "foot." In iambic tetrameter each line has four (tetra) such feet, or eight syllables in total. In each foot, or iamb, or pair of syllables, one syllable is stressed, while the other is not. Notice also that the poem has forty-six lines, or twenty-three pairs of lines. We call these pairs "couplets," and, in the case of "To His Coy Mistress," the two lines that make up