Discussion Topic
Literary Devices in Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress"
Summary:
Andrew Marvell's poem "To His Coy Mistress" employs various literary devices to persuade his beloved to seize the moment. The poem uses apostrophe, addressing an absent figure, and makes allusions to the Ganges and Humber rivers, as well as Helios, to emphasize time's brevity. Figurative language includes personification of time and the sun, metaphors like "vegetable love," and hyperbole, suggesting centuries of praise. Irony is used to highlight the urgency of love against fleeting time, and the speaker uses flattery and vivid imagery to seduce his mistress, urging her to act before beauty fades.
What literary devices are used in "To His Coy Mistress"?
"To His Coy Mistress" employs a device called apostrophe, which is when a speaker addresses a specific person or figure who is absent and thus who does not respond. The speaker directly addresses "His Coy Mistress," a woman with whom he wants to make love but who has apparently been rebuffing his advances out of concern for her "honour."
Marvell makes a number of allusions—references to other persons, places, events, or texts—to furnish the speaker's attempts to convince his mistress of his sincerity and sound thinking. The speaker mentions the Ganges River in India and the Humber River in England, noting that he and his beloved could as distant as those two rivers if they had all the time in the world. He also alludes to the Greek sun god, Helios, when he mentions "Time's wingèd chariot," a specific reference to the chariot Helios rides across the sky....
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Thisallusion is also an example of personification, a device by which an inanimate object is given human attributes.
There are many more instances of figurative language. Marvell uses metaphor when he compares eternity, or the afterlife, to "Deserts" that will be devoid of passion. He uses a simile when the speaker describes his mistress's beautiful skin, saying that a "youthful hue / Sits on [her] skin like morning dew." He compares the passion he claims that she feels in her soul to "instant fires," another metaphor, and implores her, via simile, to act with him "like amorous birds of prey" who would devour time rather than allow it to devour them. Marvell personifies the sun again when the speaker claims that he and his beloved "will make him run" to catch up with them.
What figurative language does Andrew Marvell use in "To His Coy Mistress"?
Time is personified in the poem—meaning it is given human attributes such as the ability to drive a chariot or to purposely pursue us to our deaths. The speaker says that "Time's winged chariot [is] hurrying near," meaning that he and his coy mistress, who evidently will not consent to have sex with him, do not have all the time in the world, and so he wishes to hurry along their intimacy.
He says that her "marble vault," the place where she will be buried, will house the "worms" that will "try" her "long-preserved virginity." It's rather a gross image, that her body will be invaded by worms after death, and it seems to carry some sexual meaning as well, as worms are sometimes employed as phallic symbols. The implication is that she will be penetrated by something, and wouldn't she wish it to be her living lover rather than worms, after she is dead?
He says, further, that all his lust will turn to "ashes" at that time, as though it will have been completely burned up—sexual passion is often compared to fire, and so this reads as an example of metonymy: when the poet substitutes something associated with a thing for the thing itself. The idea of "ashes" stands in for something that has been used up or consumed. Later, the speaker uses a simile when he compares the "youthful hue" that sits on his lover's skin to "morning dew." She is young, now, like the early day, but just as the day ages, so will she.
Another simile describes the two of them as "amorous birds of prey" who can "devour" time. He wants them to take control of time by enjoying one another now. Finally, the sun is personified as being able to "run"; the speaker hopes that they will take charge of time and control it rather than being controlled by it.
Marvell's narrator uses hyperbole or exaggeration in this poem to try to persuade his beloved to sleep with him. He refers to his beloved as coy, meaning shy, but with the added twist of faking the shyness, of holding back to play games with him. He uses exaggeration to indicate how much time he would love spending wooing her—if that amount of time existed:
A 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;
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall soundFinally, he personifies the sun, which stands for time in this poem, saying we will "make him run."
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long-preserved virginity
Marvell uses several types of figurative language in this poem. In the first stanza, he describes the way in which the lover who narrates the poem would pursue love languidly and without rushing if time were no object. The lover compares his love to the slow growth of a vegetable: "My vegetable love should grow / Vaster than empires and more slow." His love would increase as slowly as empires grow and would become as vast. "My vegetable love" is an example of a metaphor, as is the comparison of the growth of his love to the growth of empires. In the second stanza, he uses other metaphors to explain that time is rapid and forever proceeding. He says that he can always hear "Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near; / And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity." In these lines, he compares time to a chariot that is traveling quickly by him, as if it were carried by horses, and he says that eternity is a vast desert filled with nothingness. These two ideas are both metaphors.
While his mistress is young, the lover thinks they should pursue love. He says that "youthful hue / Sits on thy skin like morning dew." In this simile, he compares the freshness of his mistress's skin to morning dew. He says that he and his mistress should act like "amorous birds of prey," a simile. He also suggests that they tear through "the iron gates of life," a metaphor in which life is compared to a walled area through which they must burst. In the last two lines of the poem, he says, "Thus, though we cannot make our sun / Stand still, yet we will make him run." This is an example of personification, as the lover suggests that he and his mistress cause the sun to race and hurry, as if the sun were a person.
What are some examples of literary devices in "To His Coy Mistress"?
Here are some additional literary devices in this poem:
Repetition
As the speaker addresses this woman who has captivated him, he wants her to believe that she should be intimate with him—and now. He artfully conveys this sense of urgency through repetition in these lines:
Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
We would sit down, and think which way
Had we but world enough and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime.
And while thy willing soul transpires At every pore with instant fires,This again feels as if the speaker is rushing through his efforts of persuasion, hoping to rush the lady to agree and submit to his desires as well.
The speaker uses a metaphor in the phrase, "and pass our long love's day," in which he compares the lifespan of his and his coy mistress's love, so to speak, to a day. The speaker employs another metaphor when he refers to his "vegetable love" that grows slowly but just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
He uses allusions when he refers to the Ganges, a river that flows through India, as well as the Humber, a tidal estuary in England. An estuary is a partially enclosed water body near a coast; its waters are brackish, and it generally connects to the sea. He says that if time were no issue, they could take leisurely strolls at this bodies of water.
He uses hyperbole (exaggeration) to say that if he and his lover were not doomed to run out of time, he would spend a hundred years praising her eyes and forehead, two hundred years on each breast, and thirty thousand years to praise all the rest. The implication is that she is so beautiful that it would take all this time to appreciate her.
The speaker uses personification to characterize "Time" as the driver of a "winged chariot" that is constantly behind him, chasing him. The sun is personified in the last few lines when the speaker says that they (he and his mistress) will "make him run."
The speaker uses a simile when he says that his lover's youth sits on her "skin like morning dew," returning to the comparison of the life of their love to a day; it is young and new now. Another simile compares the lovers to "amorous birds of prey."
To answer your question, I'll make a list of literary devices (literary terms) that Marvell used and how he used them.
- Rhyme: particularly end of line; the poem's rhyme scheme is very easy to trace.
- Couplet: the entire poem is written in couplets, or two lines that rhyme and have the same meter.
- Meter: the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables; each couplet has the same number of syllables.
- Allusion: making reference to people or events in history, mythology, or literature; the speaker says he would love her "ten years before the Flood."
- Hyperbole: exaggeration; the speaker says that "an hundred years" should be spent to praise her eyes and "thirty thousand to the rest"
- Simile: youth sits on her skin "like morning dew."
This is a brief list of the devices Marvell used in the poem. I hope it will help you to find more.
How does Marvell use metaphysical conceit in "To His Coy Mistress"?
First of all, to make sure we are on the same page, I define metaphysical conceit as an attitude that is expressed through a rhetorical argument, like a thesis while using striking or unusual examples. This approach allows the poet the opportunity to be witty proposing something absurd or indecent. The play about the poem makes the reader drop their guard to see the issue from a fresh perspective.
In "To His Coy Mistress" he warms his audience with the hyperboles of time and space noting her ability to play hard to get. He compares the length of time he's waited to forever:
"Love you ten years before the Flood
And you should, if you please, refuse
til the conversion of the Jews.
He notes that he is willing to allow his love to grow for a long time, but after a while, time can become too long: he spends a stanza on how time can turn into death if they aren't careful. This is how he keeps the poem light and witty.
His ulitimate proposal or thesis comes in lines 33-46. He here uses light in several ways. First, he notes her "youthful hue" and the brilliance of her skin again as he says "at every pore with instant fires." This use of light paints her as a glowing piece of perfection. Often, light is used to reveal truth, here he notes how light reveals her beauty. Finally, after he makes great advances and suggestions to get together and "sport" while there is yet time, he notes the passage of time through the image of the sun going and going and going:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
These are two interpretations of the metaphysical conceit approach to light in "To His Coy Mistress". His ultimate proposal is to the expression of love or sex and the absurd suggests of time and space and death build up to his opportunity to present her as light and their relationship as light by the time he makes his great proposal.
What are some examples of irony in Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress"?
"To His Coy Mistress", by 17th century English poet, Andrew Marvell, is a notable example of metaphysical poetry, a type characterized by among other traits, startling, fanciful metaphors and hyperbole or overstatement. In the first section of the poem - from "Had we" to "at lower rate" - Marvell drives home his theme of opportunism or carpe diem ('seize the day') through a sustained set of ironic, overblown and deliberately insincere flatteries directed to the young lady. "Had", the first word of the poem, is set in the subjunctive tense and provides a grammatical counterpoint to the ironic fantasies that follow. To paraphrase this section: If they had all the time in the world, then his lady could take a lengthy journey to India (a remote and exotic place in the 17th century) to gather rubies by the Ganges; then he would love her "ten years before" Noah's flood that swept away all humanity, including lovers like himself; then she could refuse his advances until the impossibly remote day when all Jews became Christians; and then he could amorously linger for millenia in admiration over her physical beauty. But, as these ironies imply, neither he nor the lady have any time for a long, drawn-out seduction, and thus the poem concludes:
Now let us sport us while we may;And now, like am'rous birds of prey,Rather at once our time devour,Than languish in his slow-chapp'd power.
How does Andrew Marvell use language to seduce in "To His Coy Mistress"?
Firstly, the speaker in the poem uses flattery to try and seduce the "coy mistress." He says that he would spend thousands of years praising her if he could, and that she would "deserve this state." He would spend a "hundred years" to praise her eyes, and "Two thousand to adore each breast." It's worth noting, however, that the qualifying phrase that begins the poem ("Had we but world enough and time") rather undermines the flattery of the proposed thousands of years he says he would spend praising his mistress; they are all conditional upon something—namely, an infinite amount of time—that he knows is impossible.
In the second section of the poem, the speaker uses personification to suggest that time is against them and that, therefore, she shouldn't be coy for long. He says that he always hears "Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near," and, in the third section of the poem, he tries to persuade the mistress to join with him in a fight against time—he says that, together, they "will make him run."
The speaker, in the second section of the poem, uses metaphors to suggest that the mistress should consent to sleep with him before time takes its toll on both of them. He says that her "quaint honour [will] turn to dust" and "into ashes all [his] lust." In other words, he is suggesting to his mistress that they will become nothing more than "dust" and "ashes" and should, therefore, enjoy themselves while they can. The word "quaint" to describe her honor is also used by the speaker in a euphemistic sense, implying a dismissive tone. He is trying to seduce his mistress by convincing her that her honor is silly and pointless.
In the third section of the poem, the speaker uses language with connotations of passion and intensity, such as "instant fires," "let us sport," and "tear our pleasures with rough strife." He uses language like this to try and excite his mistress. It's as if he's a general trying to rally his troops to follow him into battle. Indeed, he does—as noted above—present the situation as a kind of battle: a battle with himself and his mistress on one side and and the "slow-chapped power" of time on the other.
Marvell's narrator uses hyperbole, metaphor and imagery to seduce his coy (shy) mistress. The first stanza is filled with hyperbole or exaggeration as he describes how he would woo her if there were only endless time and space. He would praise her eyes for a hundred years and each breast for two hundred years and spend 30,000 years praising the rest of her body. He would then take her to India, at the time an extremely long journey (comparable to offering to take someone to Mars today) to woo her by the Ganges river and find her rubies. However, as he notes, they don't have that kind of time. In one of the most famous couplets of the 17th century, he tells her:
But at my back I always hear/Time's winged chariot hurrying near.
Here, he's used the metaphor of time as a winged chariot--a 17th century version of an airplane--to convey to her how fast time travels. He wants her to feel the very fast speed at which times passes. He wants her to seize the day.
He moves from the chariot image of time speeding to pivot into images of death, describing how, if they wait, they might end up dying. He uses images of "worms," "ashes," "dust" and graves to reinforce the message. If they don't seize the moment now, he warns, they may have missed it, and have all eternity as dust before them.
Therefore, he says, they should "roll" their strength and sweetness "into one ball," while they can, and force the sun to rush to catch up with them. In painting such vivid scenes of the time they don't have, of death, and of the pleasures they could have together now, he hopes to persuade her not to wait.
What are two explicit allusions to Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress"?
Andrew Marvell's poem "To His Coy Mistress" is a poem that makes many allusions and also calls forth many allusions in other works. Let's look at a selection of both.
The poem itself alludes to the Bible when the speaker says that if he and his beloved had all the time in the world, she could refuse him "Till the conversion of the Jews" and it wouldn't matter. This allusion is all about the end times and hints at St. Paul's comments about such in Romans 11. The speaker also mentions "ten years before the flood," referring to the story of Noah in the Biblical book of Genesis.
On the other side of the question, other authors have alluded to Marvell's poem in their own works. Annie Finch's poem "Coy Mistress" presents the lady's response to Marvell's speaker, answering his arguments with wit and common sense. A. D. Hope also attempts such a response in his poem "His Coy Mistress to Mr. Marvell." This poem is a good deal sharper than Finch's contribution and is really quite entertaining.
Further, T. S. Eliot in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" at least echoes Marvell in his discussion of time and his allusion to a ball. The speaker in Eliot's poem lacks (on purpose) the depth and expanse of Marvell's speaker, for Eliot's speaker leads a shallow life that is lacking in meaning.
Other echoes and allusions to Marvell may be found in everything from the Ursula K. Le Guin story "Vaster than Empires and More Slow" to Virginia Woolf's Orlando: A Biography to Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms.
How does Andrew Marvell exemplify metaphysical poetry in "To His Coy Mistress"?
Andrew Marvell is known as a Metaphysical poet. A metaphysical poem incorporates strange images, paradoxes, or conceits within a logical or philosophical argument.
One poem which is clearly metaphysical is “To His Coy Mistress.” In it, the speaker attempts to convince his love that they should have sex now while they are still young. He attempts a logical argument to convince her to make the most of their time before they get old and die. He states that if they had all the time in the world, he could spend hundreds of years adoring each part of her. However, he argues, “Time’s winged chariot” is always threatening—they will grow old and die and will spend eternity in a “marble vault.” Therefore, he implores, they must seize the day before “worms shall try/ That long-preserved virginity.” He concludes that although a grave is a private place, it’s not the ideal place for love, so they should now be “amorous birds of prey” and “devour” time.
The speaker attempts to reason with his love that to stay a virgin is a waste of life. However, the images presented are bizarre for a so-called love poem. Thus, Marvell utilizes metaphysical elements to get across his message to make the most of time—carpe diem.