To His Coy Mistress by Alexander Marvell is one poem that brings out a man who is desperate to make his love unite with him out of love. The speaker in the poem brings into the fore some sort of finesse through the manipulation of things like reason, imagery and form. The reasoning in the poem reminds the reader of the classical logic emanating from philosophy synonymous with the Renaissance England. Such kind of reasoning entails statements, counter-statements and resolutions. The speaker in Alexander’s poem therefore creates some sort of classical imagery in this poem through his words. This paper will thus try to look at the deeper insights of this poem and create meaning as much as possible.
Lines 1-20 set the thesis for this poem. The speaker says that with time and enough space in the world, there is no need to rush issues of courtship and admiration towards his lover. The line reads, ‘Had we but world enough, and time’ to establish time and space without any confinement (Pinsky, 2009). The use of ‘Had’ allows the reader to deduct the subjunctive tense thus in a way it becomes ironical because the speaker even before uttering these words is fully aware that the statement is only theoretical and cannot happen in real life yet he puts forward such proclamations in a bid to woe the lover. The persuasion is in itself an impossibility so the speaker is not just flattering the lover but is also using rich form of imagery to impress the lover in the poem. The use of the rivers Humber and Ganges is not just a matter of complimenting the lover but at the same time, it serves as an amazement to the lover on just how geographical the speaker is learned as well as laying emphasis on the distance that the speaker would endure without meeting the lover with the permission of time. These first 20 lines bring out some exotic imagery in this poem that only compares to the English exploration days. This form of imagery draws the attention of the reader to the poem thus it is devoid of bland imagery as is the case with many poems on love. The author goes ahead to use Biblical references to perpetuate reality. The vast nature of the human existence prediction comes out when he talks about the great flood that did purge the earth as the starting point and later the Armageddon as the end. The use of the great flood and the Armageddon at the same time offers some subtle hints about the nihilistic nature of the poem. It suggests that human life is something that God gives and takes at will and so the matter of procreation needs no delay under the guise of morality. The description of ‘vegetable love’ has many connotations (Pinsky, 2009). There is the phallic image of the vegetable thus it could be sexual desires of the speaker. It could also mean the growth of love as being unconscious and slow at the thus laying emphasis on sincerity and how feelings grow yet this could be ironical because the speaker suggests that there is no time and so the love should develop quickly as well as consciously at the same time.
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Lines 21-32 are more of reality than hypothesis yet the tenacity is still on course with the melodramatic language in the previous part still common in this section. Time in this section is chasing the speaker unlike in the last part of the previous section where the speaker did have control over time. ‘The winged chariot’ argument clearly shows how fast time is chasing the speaker (Madden, 2009). The meter is quite regular meaning that time is indeed progressing thus reflecting the argument of the speaker in the poem. There is no issue of space here anymore instead we have things like ‘Deserts of vast eternity’ with the desert insinuating deathliness. The speaker progresses this argument throughout this section. Though gruesome, the speaker suggests that if the mistress remains in her coy state then it will be the joy of the worms to enjoy her body as they help her decompose. The deterioration images used by the speaker in some way are supposed to make the mistress develop some fear and seize the day thus not wasting her youth. This is not only sly but ironic and lines 31-32 cements these when the speaker says, ‘the grave’s a fine and private place, / But none, I think, do there embrace’ (Madden, 2009). There is sarcasm, falsity and overacting by the speaker in this section as a way of countering the first section of the poem. The first section talks about space, availability of time but the second part creates some discord as life becomes temperamental and fleeting. This tension is supposed to make the mistress uneasy and anxious at the same time so that she can change her attitude on matters of courtship.
As the poem comes to a close the speaker offers a solution. It is so easy for any reader to even predict the resolution as the tone of the speaker in the entire poem points towards sexual unification with the mistress. The speaker uses images that brings out his masculinity as well as sexual prowess to make his offer better with time in the poem. The ball in this section suggests a combined force between the speaker and the mistress. The speaker emphasizes that together they have the ability to overcome issues in life. The last two lines brings out the issue of togetherness clearly through the use of classical imagery as has been the issue in the poem all along where the speaker says that although he has no power to stop the sun but when combines together, ‘we will make him run’. The poem then concludes logically as the mistress believes that when together they will reverse the chariot of time in the previous section thus we have moved from a hypothetical position from section one to morbid reality in the second section and end with a conclusion in copulation.
References
Madden, F. (2009). Exploring literature: Writing and arguing about fiction, poetry, drama, and the essay . New York: Pearson Longman.
Pinsky, R. (2009). Essential pleasures: A new anthology of poems to read aloud . New York: W.W. Norton &.
