An Explication of Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress"

Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" portrays the theme of carpe diem. Carpe diem is a Latin phrase that translated to English means "seize the day." This poem is a lyric poem in which he uses allusions and imagery to effectively depict the elements of time and distance to the reader. These elements help build the speaker's argument. His argument is that death may be near so they should not wait; they should take advantage of their youth and the time on earth they do have. According to Andrew Moore, the argument of this poem is "a stalking horse for the more serious argument about the transitoriness of pleasure" (Moore).

The speaker of this poem is not the author himself, but rather an unnamed young man. This young man tries to convince his object of affection that she should pursue a physical relationship with him. He first says that it would be ok for her to be coy and play hard to get if they had the world and all of eternity to spend in it. He gives the idea that distance or time does not change his affection for her and he also compliments her physical features. To make his point seem real to the young lady, he uses death to illustrate an impending end to any type of pleasure they could share together. Finally, in the last part of the poem he tries to convince her by talking about the pleasures they could share and once again reiterating the theme of carpe diem by telling her they cannot stop time: "Thus, though we cannot make our sun / Stand still, yet we will make him run" (Marvell 45-46).

One of the ways Marvell portrays the theme of carpe diem is by using the element of time. The young man has no restraints on time in the poem, which makes it seem like he has had a deep attraction to the young woman for some time and always will. In the first stanza, the young man speaks of time as something that will not last forever, but he believes if he had her love, the days would be long and enjoyable. He speaks of loving her for years before the flood which is in Biblical times, "I would / Love you ten years before the flood" (Marvell 7-8). He also talks about the conversion of the Jews, which is supposed to happen at the end of time. The next mention of time is the imagery of vegetable love. The vegetable is deep rooted and grows slowly, and he compares his love to this. He also uses exaggerated amounts of time to describe how long he will adore each part of her body. He also references eternity, showing the unrestrained use of time: "And yonder all before us lie / Deserts of vast eternity" (Marvell 23-24).

The other element used in the poem is that of distance. The young man speaks of the Ganges River in India, and then of the Humber in England. These two rivers are far apart, but he makes it sound as if distance cannot separate them from each other. The only thing that he says can separate them is death. He speaks of impending death and the romantic mood of the poem changes to an almost threatening tone. He threatens her by telling her that when she is gone and buried, her beauty will disappear and they will not be able to embrace.

To bring together his argument of making the most of time and seizing the day, the speaker once again tells her of the beauty of her young age, and that they should take advantage of being young while they can:

Now therefore, while the youthful hue

Sits on they skin like morning dew,

And while they willing soul transpires,

At every pore with instant fires,

Now let us sport while we may (Marvell 33-37)

Marvell's use of imagery and allusion makes this poem come to life because it makes the reader think about things in a very real way. Using death as an argument for carpe diem is very effective because it makes one think of the life they have now and that they should take advantage of it, before it is indeed too late.

Moore, Andrew. "What is a metaphysical poem?" Andrew Moore's Teaching Resource Site. 10

Oct 08. .

Marvell, Andrew. "To His Coy Mistress." Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing.

Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. 8^th ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice

Hall, 2007. 994-995.