To his Coy Mistress poem by Andrew Marvell

    To his Coy Mistress

              By Andrew Marvell

Introduction :

       

 Andrew Marvell was an English metaphysical poet, Parliamentarian and the son of a Church of England clergyman. As a metaphysical poet, he is associated with John Donne and George Herbert. He was a colleague and friend of John Milton.

To His Coy Mistress is a metaphysical poem written by the British author and statesman Andrew Marvell either during or just before the interregnum. Marvell probably wrote the poem prior to serving in Oliver Cromwell's government as a minister. The poem was not published in his lifetime.

Critical analysis of the poem: 

        " To His Coy Mistress" is divided into three stanzas or poetic paragraphs. It's spoken by a nameless man, who doesn't reveal any physical or  biographical details about himself to a nameless woman, who is also biography- less. The speaker of the poem addresses a woman who has been slow to respond to his sexual advances. In the first stanza he describes how he would love her if they had an unlimited amount of time. He could spend centuries admiring each part of her body and her refusal to comply would not faze him. 

In the second stanza, he remembers how short human life is. Once it is over the opportunity to enjoy each other is gone because no one embraces in the grave.  In the last stanza, the speaker urges the woman to comply arguing that in loving each other with passion they will make the most of the short time they have to live.

During the first stanza, the speaker tells the Mistress that if they had more time and space, her " coyness" wouldn't be a "crime". He extends this discussion by describing how much he would compliment her and admire her, if only there was time. He would focus on "each part" of her body until he got to the heart.

In the second stanza he says, "BUT" we don't  have the time, we are about to die! He tells her that life is short, but death is forever. In a shocking moment, he warns her that, when she's in the coffin, worms will try to take her "virginity" if she doesn't have sex with him before they die. If she refuses to have sex with him, there will be repercussions for him too. All his sexual desire will burn up, "ashes" for all time.

In the third Stanza he says, "Now", I've told you that will happen when you die, so let's have sex while we're still young. Hey, look at those " birds of prey" mating. That's how we should do it- but, before that , let's have a little wine and time. Then, he wants to play a game - turn ourselves into a "ball" game. He suggests, furthermore that they release all their pent up frustrations into the sex act and in this way, be free.

In the final couplets, he calms down a little. He says that having sex can't make the "sun" stop moving. In Marvell's time, the movement of the sun around the earth is thought to create time. Anyway, he says, we can't make time stop, but we can change places with it. Whenever we have sex, we Persie time, instead of time pursuing us. This fellow has some confusing ideas about sex and time. Come to think of it, we probably do, too. "To His Coy Mistress" offers us a chance to explore some of those confusing thoughts.