FREE ESSAY ON ANDREW MARVELL`S "TO HIS COY MISTRESS"

ANDREW MARVELL`S "TO HIS COY MISTRESS"

The Argument of the Poem 
Andrew Marvell in "To His Coy Mistress," presents an argument of love to
readers. The argument comes from the speaker, a man to a woman, or to we the
audience. The first half of the poem is the speaker trying to woo her. Then the speaker
says that they are running out of time and death is upon them. 
Marvell's argument begins with if we had all the time in the world then we could
take the time to love:
Had we but world enough, and time, this coyness, lady, were no crime. We
would sit down, and think which way to walk, and pass our long love's day. (1-4)
Then he tries to prove to this shy woman the amount of time he would spend admiring
her. He says that he would love her from the beginning of time until Judgment Day:
Love you ten years before the Flood, and you should, if you please, refuse till the 
conversion of the Jews. (8-9)
He has a large, slow growing nature of affection, and he will spend all of his years
admiring all the parts of her body:
My vegetable love should grow vaster than empires, and more slow; and hundred
years should go to praise thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze; two hundred to
adore each breast, but thirty thousand to the rest; an age at least to every part, and
the last age should show your heart. (11-18)
He says that the length of time is all right due to her beauty:
For, lady, you deserve this state, nor would I love at lower rate. (19)
The argument now changes to its darker side. Marvell uses metaphors to say that
time is passing by quickly and death awaits them:
Time's winged chariot hurrying near; and yonder all before us lie deserts of vast
eternity. (22-24)
He makes reference to a grave and a burial service saying that it is an unsuitable place
for
lovers to embrace:
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound my echoing song; then worms shall try that
long-preserved virginity, and your quaint honor turn to dust, and into ashes all my
lust: the grave's is a fine a private place, but none, I think, do there
embrace. (26-32)
The final part of the poem gives reference to sex. He speaks of the youthful
freshness of her skin and of her passion. Next he uses a metaphor, which can be
translated into pouncing upon each other:
And now like enormous birds of prey, rather at once our time devour than
languish in his slow-chapped power. (38-40)
He is seemingly telling her what he wants, asking if he can enter into her womb:
Let us roll all our strength and all our sweetness up into a ball, and tear our
pleasures with rough strife thorough the iron gates of life: thus, though we cannot
make our sun stand still, yet we will make him run. (41-46)
The sun represents time, and man cannot move the sun, therefore, he cannot make time
stand still proving mans inability to live forever. The last line states that they can
make
whatever they want out of life, or make their own sun run.
He went from trying to get her in his bed by displaying his utmost admiration of
her, to death is right around the corner. Marvell was saying that you cannot cheat death
or time, all you can do is make the most of it. He uses the word "Now" to make a point
that life is now. Ironically, Marvell gave the image of light and the image of
brightness,
with his use of the sun and the "instant fires," to give a luster and to show the idea of
her
giving up her shyness or coyness. This contrasted with the darkness, and essential
remorse that life is not eternal, which is the key to getting what he wants from her.