Literary Analysis of "To His Coy Mistress" Essay

The poem "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell conveys a message on the shortness of life. He puts a sense of being flirtatious as he talks of the love he shares with his beloved mistress. The speaker in the poem, a male lover, says that in life there is no time to be coy, thus, one must squeeze his or her joys into the limited time of today to fulfill expectations and remain happy. This philosophical poetry talks of the beloved lady's shyness and hesitance that was against the limitation of enough world and time (Spacey 2017). The poet uses flair manipulation to reason with this addressee on his valid arguments of why they should share a mutual sexual attraction. The speaker employs philosophical logic in the forms and imagery to elaborate his subtle point of view. Initially, Marvell emphasizes the essence of time as he develops his theme, structure, and plot in the poem using different literary devices. This paper will explore a literary analysis discussing the literary devices applied in the poem. The devices applied by the poet include metaphor, allusion, hyperbole, personification, similes, and imagery.

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The speaker uses a metaphoric expression to describe the essence of the time they had with his beloved cot mistress. He says "To walk and pass our long love's day," (Marvell line 4) as a comparison of the lifespan of the love life they share with his beloved mistress in comparison to one day (Legouis 1968). Again, the speaker refers to the love they share as "vegetable love" as a metaphoric illustration that the love is alive, it is growing gradually to increase as days go by, yet, it is fragile it can wither or get destroyed in a short misshapen. When he compares the love they share with a vegetable he wants to show the blossom of it a freshness that requires tender care to tend to.

On the other hand, the speaker uses hyperbole or exaggeration to show the significance of unlimited courting time. He is using exaggeration when he says that is time was on their side he would spend a hundred years praising the physical appearance of his coy mistress. He talks of using thirty thousand years to praise the magnificent of the lady's body as an exaggeration of her overwhelming beauty. Additionally, the speaker of the poem uses allusions to show the abstractness of his philosophical definitions. For instance, he refers to the Ganges, an Indian river that flows through the country, and the Humber, a tidal river source in England as their leisure spots. In his illusion thoughts, the narrator talks of the essence of time to stroll these world sceneries with his beloved mistress as a gesture of love sharing.

Furthermore, the poet uses personification as a characterization of time. He personifies time as a driver of a winged chariot that is constantly chasing him. In this essence, he tries to tell his readers of the unstopping chariot drive by time giving time human traits in dictating the limitation of the things he wants to do in life (Spacey 2017). Again, he personifies the sun when he talks of it as one of the things that do not wait for him making him to constantly run to keep up with him. Another literary device applied in the poem is similes when he tries to compare the flawlessness of his beloved's body with compassion. He says that her skin is like morning dew as a similarity of compassion; and "she is like amorous birds of prey" to show his mistress was sentimental.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Marvell's poem "to His Coy Mistress" employs different literary devices to praise his mistress and develop the plot, structure and the theme. Throughout the poem, the poet uses metaphor, allusion, hyperbole, and similes to explore the physical beauty of his beloved mistress. The use of these literary devices has helped bring the true meaning of the speaker's point of view as well as the motifs of the narration.

Works cited

Legouis, Pierre. Andrew Marvell: Poet, Puritan, Patriot. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1968.

Marvell, Andrew. Andrew Marvell: A Critical Edition of the Major Works. Edited by Frank Kermode and Keith Walker. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Spacey, Andrew. Analysis of Poem "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell, Owlcation, September 29, 2017. Retrieved from https://owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-of-Poem-To-His-Coy-Mistress-by-Andrew-Marvell