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To His Coy Mistress Essay

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The poem “To His Coy Mistress,” by Andrew Marvell is a poem that reads intently on the passions of human nature when attracted to the opposite sex. The setting is on the banks of two rivers, The Indian Ganges, and the Humber in India. A woman stands on one bank, while the speaker stands on the other trying to persuade the woman into sexual relations with him before they grow and both die. The man is the only character speaking in this one-sided conversation. He tells her of his love for her that began before the flood and would continue until the Jews convert to Christianity. The man tries to persuade the woman to have sex with him by telling her how fast time will take them into the grave and then her genitals will be useful to nothing but …show more content…
Metaphors are used aggressively throughout this work. Marvell states, “…Love you ten years before the Flood, and you should, if you please, refuse till the conversion of the Jews.”(Norton 1797) This metaphor is used to explain how long and how much the man loves her. The Flood that God sent in the times of Noah was more massive then the world as they knew it. The man wants the woman to know that his love is beyond measure. He also states his love will last until the conversion of the Jews. According to the footnotes in the Norton textbook under “To His Coy Mistress”, “it is popular belief that the Jews were to be converted just before the Last Judgment.” (Norton 1797) The Last Judgment is another term for the end of time. This shows that his love is going to last forever. Marvell writes, “Time’s wringed chariot hurrying near;…” (Norton 1797). In this metaphor the man is trying to convey to the woman that death is ever approaching so they need to live in the moment and consummate their love. Alliteration is also used in the poem. “But thirty thousand to the rest;..”(Norton 1797). In this line Marvell is speaking about the amount of time that the man would spend on each of the woman’s body parts. In previous lines he had stated different links of time he would spend on other specific parts of her body. In this line he uses alliteration because he wants to convey to the audience and to the woman that the amount of time he is going to spend on the rest of her body will be the most important thus, the use of the same letter for each word causing the phrase to stick in the audience’s mind due to the repetition. Simile is used in, “To His Coy Mistress”, Marvell writes, “And now, like amorous birds of prey, rather at once our time devour…”(Norton 1797). By comparing their sexual relations to that of the actions of birds of prey the man is suggesting that they should have overly aggressive sexual relations.

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