First some background on Andrew Marvell, lived 1621-1678 who supported the Puritans along with John Milton. The poem was written before serving for Cromwell and he died before it was published.
The poem's main topic is "carpe diem" => seizing the day....it is said to be one of the finest poems of this topic ever put into verse. What I like about the poem is that it is very straight forward, the speaker is simply trying to persuade his mistress into having sex with him. A metaphysical conceit is presented stating that if he were wealthy he spend alot of time courting her. If she weren't to love young and lose her viginity she'd grow old and eventually die without love and be in a tomb full of worms. The speaker believes they should combine all their strength in making love toward one another, and to make the most of the time they have.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
Thought I'd add some important definitions as well:
COY- shy; modest
HUMBER- estuary of the Ouse and Trent rivers in Eastern England
HUE- tint (of color)
LANGUISH- to become weak or feeble
The poem displays three different mood swings in each of the three stanzas, in the first stanza the man talks about how he will love the woman forever and be all romantic towards her without sexual intentions. The second stanza starts with the word “But” which signifies a mood change in the poem, this stanza has the narrator lusting after the woman and wanting only sex from her. The third stanza starts with the word “Now” which means that the narrator is no longer looking towards spending the future with the woman but blatantly stating that he wants to only have sex with her now, he’s rushing on purpose because of the “Carpe Diem” concept that is present in this poem.
I liked this poem it was easy to understand and straightforward, though the part mentioning the flood and the Jews I didn’t get how that fit in with the mood of the poem.
When we discussed this in class, we talked about how this is like Donne's poem, "The Flea." In both a man is trying to convince some woman to engage in the "sport" as its called in these poems. While in "The Flea" the narrator is using the evidence that it is no greater sin to have sex with him than if the woman kills the flea, in "To His Coy Mistress" the persuasion is that there is not enough time in the world. However, to make his argument the narrative voice in "To His Coy Mistress" explains what he would do if there was enough time in the world.
Basically this poem is about a man trying to get into a womens but the man is trying to woo the women and tries to make sex sound like such a great thing. Its kind of like out in the wild when the doiminant male has to fight off the others so that the alpha could mate with whoever he wants now humans are alittle more complicated it is the same concept.
I think this poem is straight forward in what it's talking about but it is hard to read and understand the first time. After reading it a few times though i'm getting the feeling that the speaker is desperatly trying to get this girl to love him and have sex with him before. In the first stanza he's trying to give her examples of how great he loves her and how wonderful their relationship would be if they were together. Inthe second stanza he is emphasizing the fact that they will not be onthis earth toghether forever and if they are going to pursue a relationship why should they wait becuas there is no time better than the present. He warns her that the tomb is a good place to be that one shouldn't embrace it. Instead one should embrace the life now and the love that is at hand. In the third stanza he's saying that she is stil young and is still beautiful to him and many others. Why should she wait until she's older and less attactive to get in a relationship when she is able to get a man now. Who knows what the future will bring. If they pull together their strengths then the pleasure of having sex will be very great.
"To His Coy Mistress" definitely has the "carpe diem" mood. It does seem quite straightforward. Marvell, like other metaphysical poets has quite an ability to shock people with his version of the metaphysical conceit. Marvell seems to say that given forever, he would court this woman forever. He, however, feels time catching up to him, and fears she will be dead and penetrated by worms (once underground), before she is penetrated by her lover. Marvell concludes with the idea that if they cannot make time stop they should use it all up. Marvell makes reference to the bible with the flood (Noah and the ark) and says he will love her until the conversion of all Jews to Christians at the end of time.
This was a very interesting poem and the lines used would never be able to get a girl. In John Milton's time these lines probably didn't work and it would make much sense for anyone to try them now.
Rethinking the carpe diem theme, I think that Marvell clearly makes his point. Marvell uses metaphors and imagery to make a timeless scene more concrete. Marvel is giving his mistress two options it seems. THey can either love each other while they have the chance and the time or, they can not love each other and only realize they should when it is too late. he wants them to love now and not lose their chance. That is the whole point of 'seize the day'.
Heather Brooks
In the first stanza of the poem, the man says that if they had all the time in the world, the woman's coyness would not be a problem. In the second stanza, he says what good is keeping your honor if your honor just turns to dust once you die anyway. By the third stanza, he is basically getting back to the common theme of "carpe diem", which means to sieze the day. He is essentially asking the question "are we to let time run us or should we run time?"
Post a Comment