TYPE OF WORK: * Masterly work of Andrew Marvell * Lyrical poem * Love poem * Seducing poem * Carpedium poem * Metaphysical poem * Startling comparisons or contrasts of a metaphysical (spiritual, transcendent, abstract) quality to a concrete (physical, tangible, sensible) object. * Mockery or satirizing of idealized romantic poetry and divines of love through crude or shocking imagery * Gross exaggeration * Expression of personal, private feelings * Presentation of a logical argument, or syllogism

THE TITLE: “To His Coy Mistress” * Mistress - A young woman who has an affair with a married man
- A person in- charge (manager, caretaker, courtesan)
- A patron or a female sweetheart in 1650’s
- The female equivalent of master * Coy -Pretending to be shy or reserved -Olden days referred it to the feeling of shyness - “To coy” (v) means to stroke - The lady is no easy catch * His - Third-person possessive pronoun -Refers to the young man
The tying of both the words ‘mistress’ and ‘coy’ brings about the beauty of the poem which talks about complicated relationship and complicated communication between the speaker and his mistress. It’s a plea to a young lady by his lover.

THE PERSONA (The Young Man): * First-person point of view * Presentation as the plea of another man (fictional) who is the persona of the poet * The young man is impatient, desperately so, unwilling to tolerate temporizing on the part of the young lady * His motivation appears to be carnal desire rather than true love; passion rules him. Consequently, one may describe him as immature and selfish.
SETTING:
* Our Imagination * The poets imagination * No specific place is mentioned * Hypothetical situations * Written in 1651-1652 and Published in 1681 * In the first stanza, the speaker starts with "crime." * In the second stanza the setting gets creepy quickly. * The third stanza is like a setting resurrection. * In the final couplet, the setting seems dangerous.
Examples:
* Indian Ganges to the Humber Estuary in England * Grave to the morning dew * Deserts of vast eternity to the Marble vaults * Standing near the sun * To the sky marking the amorous birds of prey

CHARACTERS: * Young Man: He pleads with a young lady to stop playing hard to get and accept his love * Young Lady: A coquettish woman

SUMMARY:
Spoken by an anonymous speaker to a nameless woman, who is also biography-less. In response to the young man’s declarations of love for a young lady, the lady is playfully hesitant, artfully demure. But dallying will not do, he says, for youth passes swiftly. He and the lady must take advantage of the moment, he says, and “sport us while we may.” Oh, yes, if they had “world enough, and time” they would spend their days in idle pursuits, leisurely passing time while the young man heaps praises on the young lady. But they do not have the luxury of time, he says, for “time's winged chariot” is ever racing along. Before they know it, their youth will be gone; there will be only the grave. And so, the poet pleads his case: Seize the day.

He marks his love for her as faithful and her coyness as a crime for he felt that she was just toying with him. The argument may be outlined as follows: (1) we could spend decades or even centuries in courtship if time stood still and we remained young. (2) But time passes swiftly and relentlessly. (3) Therefore, we must enjoy the pleasure of each other now, without further ado .The conclusion of the argument begins at Line 33 with "Now therefore." The solution turns to the act of love making as sex is the ripened fruit of true love. He suggests, furthermore, that they release all their pent up frustrations into the sex act, and, in this way, be free. Whenever they have sex, they pursue time, instead of time pursuing them.

FORM AND METER: * Three stanzas or poetic paragraphs * Dramatic Monologue * Iambic Tetrameter

* The speaker (anonymous) of the poem does all the talking, which makes this a monologue, a speech by a single character. But, because he isn’t just talking to himself, but to another fictional character, the mistress, it is "dramatic" – hence the term "dramatic monologue." * An "iamb" as a unit of poetry consisting of two syllables. This unit is also called a "foot." In iambic tetrameter each line has four (tetra) such feet, or eight syllables in total(octosyallabic). Each foot consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. * The poem has forty-six lines, or twenty-three pairs of lines. We call these pairs "couplets," and, in the case of "To His Coy Mistress," the two lines that make up each couplet rhyme with each other. The rhyme pattern is “aa bb cc dd ee ff”. * Marvell uses punctuation in order to slow down the pace of the poem without interfering with the constant iambic tetrameter throughout the poem. It’s a poem written in the first person, despite the third person inference in the title. It uses Petrarchan conventions. * Poetry is obsessed with sounds and so the first stanza is a mix of fastness and slow pace. The second stanza brings in excitement and the third is a big relief. The final couplet sounds bright, fast, slow and elegant.
Example:
......1..................2...................3...............4
Had WE..|..but WORLD..|..e NOUGH..|..and TIME
.......1.......... ..2........... ....3...............4
This COY..|..ness LA..|..dy WERE..|..no CRIME
Therefore, the form is “Iambic” and the meter is “tetrameter.

STRUCTURE
The poem has three sections. In the first stanza the ideal courtship is presented, with extravagant references to the care and devotion with which the speaker would "woo" his lover "had we but time". The second stanza makes it clear that they have not got time, and that death is not only inevitable but imminent. The final stanza proposes that they fight against the progression of time and seek pleasure while they are able.
The poem is written in rhyming couplets, a popular format in rhyming poetry.

LANGUAGE
In the first stanza there are humorously exaggerated references to traditional romantic ideas. He speaks of spending "An hundred years" to "praise/Thine eyes" and "Two hundred to adore each breast". This is all undermined by the poem's opening words: "Had we but world enough, and time". He is presenting a courtship which may sound wonderful, but is one he states from the outset is impossible. Persuasively he tells his lover "you deserve this state", even though he knows it is all an exaggerated fantasy.

THEMES:
The speaker uses an argument of time in order to convince his love to have sex with him. He feels that would be the cure for all mental illness. It might be a parody over someone’s inner feel. There is seriousness, absurdity, pain, pleasure, joke and deep philosophy.The poem also challenges the religious ideas of Christians.
Time
* Super- villain to take the life of the speaker. * The speaker wants to control time and flip the script * Time----It was a hot topic in the 1600’s.The poet lived in the age of Galileo and Newton (, both of whom revolutionized the way we think about time today) * We explore the mysterious nature of TIME. Waiting and resisting urges in life is pointless, he suggests. * There is the reference to ideal time (first stanza “if”), real time (second stanza “we don’t”) and optium time (third stanza “Our sweetness”).
QUOTES:
HAD we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, Lady, were no crime (lines 1-2)
This sets us up for later, when the speaker reveals that he thinks "time" is a criminal who terrorizes him. It’s interesting that the speaker doesn’t call the lady a criminal directly, but just says that she wouldn’t be one if they had more time.
Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near (line 22)
Things changed a lot since the 1650s –it’s an interesting idea that time has a vehicle, and that time moves and travels. The speaker needs this indirect personification in order to think of time as the super-villain pursuing him. It’s no surprise that time would take a front-row seat in Marvell’s imagination. In his day, there is a revolution in timekeeping, and "accurate" clocks are just beginning to be made.
Deserts of vast eternity (line 25)
This is a striking metaphor, which seems somewhat confusing when we start to break it down. The speaker doesn’t compare eternity to "deserts," but talks about deserts that are made out of eternity. We don’t know what eternity looks like. It’s an abstract idea, like time. Deserts come in many varieties, but, here, the desert is a symbol of emptiness and loneliness. This line also plays on the idea of an hourglass, and "the sands of time."
Rather at once our time devour (line 39)
Until the late 1800s and early 1900s, time is thought to be "absolute," or the same for everybody. Now, we know that time is different for everybody, depending on where each person is in space. By using the possessive "our," the speaker suggests the idea that takes another two hundred years to become "common knowledge." Marvell is way ahead of his time.
Sex
* Having sex is the super-power he needs to gain control over his enemy named time * But, sex isn’t so easy to come by. Possibly because only a very special someone would understand the speaker’s ideas about it. * With wit and daring, the speaker discusses sex in frank, beautiful, and disturbing language. * Sex is another one of those great mysteries that poets never tire of exploring. Marvell’s contribution perhaps paves the way for more open discussions of sex and sexuality. * One can easily read sex into almost any line of the poem. * All the sex in the poem happens in the mind of the speaker in a variety of hypothetical situations. * Since the topic of sex can be both serious and absurd, and can lead to both pleasure and pain, the speaker is probably both joking and serious, all wrapped up together. * Sex in the poem is a metaphor for the writing process – what the speaker really wants is enough time to write, and, hopefully, to create a poem that will last longer than he will.

QUOTES:
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow (lines 11-12)
This is one of the poem’s most famous passages. It’s memorable because it’s surprising, fluid, and extremely sexually suggestive. The speaker mockingly combines love and sex in the poems "If" scenario – where, ideally, love would "ripen" into sexual desire. Love had grown too slow.
[…] then worms shall try
That long preserved virginity (lines 27-28)
Here, the speaker, in characteristic hyperbole, seems to claim that, if the mistress doesn’t have sex with him, she will remain a virgin forever – an idea he clearly holds in contempt. Think back to his initial accusation that her "coyness" is a "crime." Here, he describes her punishment – worms! That’s not very nice – although, if you have a dark sense of humor, it can be funny, too.
And into ashes all my lust (line 30)
This is interesting on several levels. It might suggest that the speaker is a virgin, too, and that he only wants to have sex with the mistress. He says that "all" his lust will turn to ashes when he dies, if she doesn’t have sex with him. If she dies a virgin, so will he. But, that’s only one possibility. The word "ashes" also suggests fire, playing on the idea of passion and lust as fire. It sounds painful.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball, (lines 41-42)
This is probably the one image of sex in the poem that isn’t loaded with irony and sarcasm, cruelty, or violence. It is genuinely playful, direct, and clear, with less room for ambiguity.
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life (lines 42-43)
The speaker suggests that they can use the difficulty and frustration of life (that is, "strife") to enhance the sexual experience. This line would be easier if it said "and tear our rough strife with our pleasure." Then, we could say that he wants to use sex to help him cope with the pain and frustration of life. But, that would be too simple for our complicated speaker.
Morality
* Mortality, otherwise known as "death," gets a whole stanza in Andrew Marvell’s classic from the 1650s. * The speaker presents his vision of the afterlife. * While beautiful in terms of the words the speaker uses to describe it, his vision is miles away from hopeful. * He thinks that dying is the ultimate lack of control. * It’s not as big of a downer as it sounds like. The speaker is a very witty guy, and his treatment of death makes for some of the most entertaining pick-up lines since John Donne’s "The Flea." * “Momento Mori’ is the picture of skull that we see in movies on the desk of a medivial monk which reminds him of his morality as the speaker threatens his lady love.
QUOTES:
But at my back I always hear
Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near (lines 21-22)
The speaker is downright paranoid about time. He sees time as a stalker out to get him. Why? Because he associates time with mortality. Perhaps death borrowed time’s chariot in order to harass the speaker. Or, perhaps time and death are one in the same for our man.
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song (line 26)
Is he trying to say that, if the mistress does have sex with him before she dies, she will be able to hear his love song in the grave? It’s possible. The speaker’s vision of the afterlife for people who do have sex might be very different from the one that he imagines for people who don’t. It’s possible that he truly believes that sex frees not just the body, but the soul, from eternal nothingness.
Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew (lines 33-34)
In contrast to all the death talk that precedes them, these lines are fresh and vibrant. In one of the poem’s few similes, the speaker brings the mistress back from the "grave," if you will, and tries to get her in the mood to "sport" and romp with him.
Freedom and Confinement * The poem moves constantly between images from confinement, to freedom, to confinement, to freedom. * In the first stanza, the speaker starts with "crime." He then moves to the Ganges River in India and the Humber Estuary in England. From there, he moves to the body of the mistress, or, at least, "each part." Finally, he goes inside her body, to her heart. * In the second stanza the setting gets creepy quickly. "Deserts of vast eternity," has a beautiful ring to it – and even a feeling of freedom, albeit a lonely freedom. The speaker snatches that image away though, and leads us into a "marble vault" (otherwise known as "the grave"). * The third stanza is like a setting resurrection. The poem bursts from "the grave" into "the morning dew," and, then, beyond the mistress’s body, into her "soul." The speaker then imagines their union, and the setting moves up into the sky with the "amorous birds of prey." * In the final couplet, the setting seems dangerous. We feel like the speaker stands very near to the sun, and that he might get burned. * As we read why the speaker feels trapped, and how he thinks he can get out, we feel the need to examine the freedoms and confinements of our own lives. * The poem can feel claustrophobic at some moments, but, at other moments, we feel all our confines crumble.
QUOTES:
This coyness, Lady, were no crime (line 2)
The word "crime" conjures up images of jails, and suggests that the mistress should be, if she’s not already, locked up. As the poem continues, we see that the speaker sees her "crime" as both against herself, and him. in thy marble vault (line 26)
The graveyard imagery is one thing that makes this more than just a love poem or a pick-up line. The marble vault represents what the speaker thinks his mistress has: a closed, limited way of thinking about the world. He thinks that she is trapped by her "old-fashioned" views on sex. Perhaps, it also represents the speaker’s closed-mindedness, too. He seems very convinced that his way is the best way.
And while thy willing soul transpires At every pore with instant fires (lines 35-36)
We see a body and soul act in harmony, and a body burn with freedom and joy. "Transpire" has a few fun meanings that you can chew on. The first is "to come to light." The second is "to happen." The third actually has to do with plants. If a plant "transpires," it loses water vapor through its stomata (little pores on the leaves), a crucial part of photosynthesis.
Now let us sport us while we may (line 37)
The speaker seems to say: we might not have all the time in the world, but we are still free to play. Sport and games are often associated with freedom. During World War II, one way that Americans show their support for the war is by indulging in their freedom to play baseball. The speaker, of course, is talking about sexual sport as freedom, or perhaps sexual freedom as sport.
Thorough [through] the iron gates of life (line 44)
Here, Marvell combines both freedom and confinement in the same line. He reminds us of the "crime" of the first stanza. It also states quite plainly that the speaker thinks life is a prison to escape. The speaker finally describes what he wants to happen – he wants to burst through the "iron gates" of the mistress’s "coyness." He wants to transform life into a free place.

Dance of Death,Love,Life and Passion * In poetry, especially love poetry, time is personified as being the enemy of lovers. * Time will bring death, the awareness of which is always with the speaker. * The final couplet is hopeful of the lovers' chances of making the most of life * The poem is a famous example of the classical idea of "carpe diem" or "seize the day". * The speaker is urging his mistress to make the best of life by living it to the full and not simply waiting - pointlessly denying pleasures - for death. * This idea clashes with one of the popular movements of the 17th century, Puritanism, which emphasized the importance of denying personal pleasures (especially those considered in any way sinful), and the simple worshipping of God.
QUOTES:
"at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near".
A chariot is an old type of carriage pulled by horses, commonly associated with war. War marks death indirectly. Death borrowed time’s chariot in order to harass the speaker. Life is not eternal.
"though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run".
The word "will" is definite; the couplet acknowledges that time and death is inevitable. Even then the lovers will make them run away from them through their love.
“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,” He tells her how young she is and how her soul rushes around excitedly inside her, leaking out through her pores on her skin due to her passion for youth and the act of making love.
DICTION:
As with other poetic elements, the speaker’s vocabulary shifts as his argument goes through the three phases that make up the three sections of the poem. When the reader tries to understand the position of the listener, the poem’s occasionally difficult language becomes simpler to comprehend. The speaker’s diction changes, depending on whether he is trying to appeal to his lover, to flatter her, or to persuade her.
- line 5 - "Thou"
Poetry was more formal in the seventeenth century .The nuances of language change over time. We may be struck by the formal-sounding “Thou” and the use of “thy” throughout the poem, but again, this was common in seventeenth-century poetry.
- lines 5 and 7 - "the Indian Ganges” and “Humber"
Initially, the speaker’s words are meant to impress his lover, so the speaker alludes to world geography. He also flatters her by placing her in an exotic—and ruby-laden—location (the Indian Ganges) while he remains in England (Humber).
- lines 8 and 10 - "the flood” and “the conversion of the Jews"
Because the speaker’s objective during this section of the poem is to impress his lover, he alludes to biblical history (in addition to geography) as if to assert his worldliness and his intelligence. Such loftiness is absent from the next ten lines, when his objective is to flatter his lover.
- lines 13, 15, and 16 - "An hundred,” “Two hundred,” “thirty thousand"
The speaker’s use of numbers in this section of the poem demonstrates a shift in the speaker’s objective: He now wants to flatter more than impress. Consequently, his numbers only increase, until finally it requires “an age . . . to every part” (17).
- lines 24, 27, 29, and 30 - "Deserts,” “worms,” “dust,” and “ashes"
In this second section of the poem, the speaker reveals his awareness of time’s encroachment. He chooses language that might appeal to the listener’s emotions rather than her intellect. These words are much more physical and instinctive than the distant, abstract language of the first two sections, whether the speaker is flaunting his knowledge of geography and biblical history or using numbers to stoke the flames of his listener’s vanity.
- line 34 - "Sits on the skin like morning dew"
In the final section (once the speaker has made his point), the speaker’s diction reverts to the relative ease of the first section, and he chooses words that are more playful and ornamental than those in the second section. The language in the final section is characterized by sweetness and, by the very end, a flaring passion.
SYMBOLS ANALYSIS: * Motion and Stillness
"To His Coy Mistress" is very concerned with the full range of motion, including stillness. The motion helps the poem pick up speed, and the stillness lets us catch our breath and reflect for moments before we rush on. This back and forth also helps the speaker make his point. His portrayal of stillness isn’t very positive, while his moments of action are full of excitement and challenge, suggesting that our speaker is all about action.

Lines 3-4: The speaker is big on hyperbole, and he uses it to suggest various speeds of motion and even stillness. "Picking rubies" implies a somewhat leisurely action (although actual ruby-picking is not leisurely at all).
Lines 8-10: The speaker’s declaration that (if he had time) he would love her "ten years before the flood" and "till the conversion of the Jews" combines hyperbole and allusion to create motion, in this case a sense of rapid movement through time. He also uses the grand, Biblical language ironically to poke fun at the mistress, whom he accuses of wanting something timeless (like eternal love), while saying in the same breath that he would give this to her, too, if he has time. This might create the motion of the mistress running away from the speaker.
Lines 18-19: The speaker uses "show your heart" as a metaphor for the mistress’s imagined agreement to finally have sex with him, implying faster action, and possibly a faster heartbeat. But, to emphasize the theme of mock leisure in this stanza, he slows things down by using the word "show," which rhymes with the "slow" of a previous line.
Line 20: He then extends the "heart" metaphor in line 20 by introducing the word rate – as in heart rate, another kind of motion. We can’t neglect the sense of "rate" which means "price" or "cost." With this pun, he slyly accuses her of wanting to sell her love for compliments – which brings us back to the running away thing.
Lines 45-46: The final lines of the poem employ a variety of fun techniques. The simple imagery of the word "sun," which makes us see yellow or orange or red as we read, combines with personification to deepen the image. We see a red-orange blur, wearing fiery running shoes. As you might suspect, Marvell’s ending flourish is even more sophisticated. The sun is also a metaphor for time. Time is an abstract concept (while the sun is an object we can see). By giving an abstract concept (time) human characteristics (running), the speaker personifies an abstraction, and we are left with an image of a bizarre red-orange clock wearing tennis shoes, trying to stay as far away from the speaker as possible. * The Imperial
In the 1650s, the British Empire has its teeth firmly sunk into the land of India. Andrew Marvell was active politician, and very close with Oliver Cromwell – don’t mention his name if you are ever in Ireland! Without a thorough study, we can’t say exactly what Marvell’s role in British colonialism and imperialism is, but he probably had some hand in it.
Luckily, we are here to explore the poem, and the poem doesn’t say much about this issue, although what it does say is characteristically ambiguous. Nevertheless, the brief mention takes on significance, as we gaze back in to the world’s past.
Line 5: As noted, the poem briefly alludes to imperialism. The "Indian Ganges" and "rubies," when taken together in this context, can be symbols of imperialism, especially to us, today. When we consider that he generally insults the mistress in this section, the colonialists, by way of rubies and India, become a metaphor for the mistress. She steals rubies from the Indian people. She steals sex from the speaker, by not having it with him. If she doesn’t stop abusing her power, she will leave him in ruins.
Line 12: Yep, it’s the word "empire" that interests us here. Building an empire ain’t easy, and it takes time (though not as long as growing vegetables, apparently). Some would say the same of relationships. Thus, colonialism also becomes a metaphor for relationships. The speaker accuses the mistress of thinking that sex and relationships are something big and serious, like ruling the world (the goal of building an empire), when, in fact – or so he says later on – such things are as common for people as for birds. He accuses her of hyperbole, which is ironic, considering all of his hyperbole throughout the poem. If Marvell has anxiety concerning imperialism (which is highly possible), he picks a pretty sly way to talk about it. Of course, this poem wasn’t published until after he was dead.

* The Great Unknown
As we discuss in "In A Nutshell," Andrew Marvell is considered a Metaphysical Poet, which means, in part, that he was concerned with the mysteries of life, death, and the universe. The striking images of the unknown as imagined by the speaker might not give us any answers, but they entertain us and give us food for thought as we ponder all these deep things.
Lines 21-22: What kind of chariot does time drive? The chariot is a nice example of metonymy. The chariot becomes a stand in for time. When the speaker hears the chariot behind him (which is all the time), he associates it with time. The imagery of wings helps us see the chariot, and even hear the sound it makes. This metonymical link between time and the chariot also personifies the abstract concept of time, by implying that time is behind the wheel of the chariot. Either that or time’s chauffer is behind the wheel – but, if time has a driver, that’s still personification.
Lines 27-30. Hyperbole turns nasty in this section. He makes the ridiculous suggestion that, if she dies a virgin, worms will have sex with her dead body. This vision of the unknown employs simple, but effective visual imagery.
Lines 36- 38. It’s possible that sex is unknown to the speaker, and he implies that it’s unknown to the mistress. His vision of sex, like most of what he envisions, is full of hyperbole. In one of the poem’s few similes, he likens their impending (so he hopes) sexual union to that of "birds of prey." While birds’ mating is innocent enough, the word "prey" sets us up for the weird violence that the speaker imagines taking place before they actually have sex.
Line 39-40: His idea of foreplay is eating time. Conceiving time as something that can be devoured makes our head spin. In this case, time becomes a symbol for everything that the speaker thinks traps him. Ironically, the speaker wants to be nourished by the very thing that he wants to be rid of. The irony suggests a paradox. The speaker wants to be rid of time, but needs time in order to enjoy life.

LITERARY DEVICES USED: * Alliteration: Repetition of the beginning sounds which may be consonants or vowel sounds.
Examples
* To walk and pass our long love's day. * But thirty thousand to the rest; * And the last age should show your heart. * The grave 's a fine and private place, * Thus, though we cannot make our sun * Stand still, yet we will make him run. * Had we but world enough, and time, * This coyness, Lady, were no crime * We would sit down and think which way

* Anaphora: Phrases or verses with the same beginning word or words. It is a type of repetition, which is a rhetoric device.
Examples
* An hundred years should go to praise * An age at least to every part, * But thirty thousand to the rest; * But at my back I always hear * But none, I think, do there embrace. * Nor would I love at lower rate. * Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound * And you should, if you please, refuse * And the last age should show your heart. * And yonder all before us lie * And your quaint honour turn to dust, * And into ashes all my lust: * And while thy willing soul transpires * And now, like amorous birds of prey, * And tear our pleasures with rough strife

* Now therefore, while the youthful hue * Now let us sport us while we may,

* Assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds in words that are close to each other which start with different consonant sounds.
Examples
* Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound * Now therefore, while the youthful hue

* Euphemism: A word or phrase that replaces a word or words to make it polite.
Examples
* And your quaint honour turn to dust,

* Hyperbole: It is an exaggeration generally for effect.
Examples
* Thou by the Indian Ganges' side * I would
Love you ten years before the Flood, * Till the conversion of the Jews. * My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, * An hundred years should go to praise * Two hundred to adore each breast, * But thirty thousand to the rest; * then worms shall try
That long preserved virginity,

* Irony: It is the difference between the way something appears and what is actually true.
Examples
* Had we but world enough, and time, * For, Lady, you deserve this state, * Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapt power.

* Metaphor: A hidden comparison of two unlike objects or ideas in order to suggest their similarity.
Examples:
* My vegetable love should grow * Time's winged chariot hurrying near; * And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires, * Thorough the iron gates of life:

* Simile: A direct comparison of two things that is alike in a certain way.
Examples
* Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew, * And now, like amorous birds of prey,

* Understatement: A statement said to make something appear less important. * Litotes: An ironical understatement in which affirmative is expressed by the negation of the opposite. This is mainly done through double negatives
Examples
* grave's a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.

* Personification: It is giving human characteristics to non-living things or ideas.
Examples
* But at my back I always hear
Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near; * Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.

* Metonymy: The replacement of one thing with a word which is closely associated with it.
Example
* Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near;

* Paradox: Statements that appear to contradict itself.
Example
* Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run. * Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapt power.

* Syllogism: It is a rhetorical device that starts an argument with a reference to something general and from this it draws conclusion about something more specific.
Examples
* Thesis:The ideal state(“Had we”) * Antithesis:The real situation(“But at”) * Synthesis:What has to be done as necessary conclusion(“Now therefore”)

* Enjambment: The use of run on line in verse. The sense is carried from one line of verse over to the next line without a pause.
Examples
* We would sit down and think which way
To walk and pass our long love's day.

* Ambiguity: This is a word or phrase which contains more than one meaning.
Example
* And while thy willing soul transpires

* Adynaton: It is an extreme form of hyperbole, which is completely impossible to happen in reality.
Examples
* This coyness,Lady, were no crime. * Till the conversion of the Jews.

* Conceit: Here two vastly different objects are linked with the help of simile or metaphor.
Examples
* My vegetable love should grow

* Consonance: Repetition of the consonant sounds alone
Examples
* Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest; * An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart

* Denotation: It is when the dictionary meaning is different from the associated meaning in a work.
Examples
* Our sweetness up into one ball

* Allusion: It is the indirect reference to a person,place,thing or idea of historical,cultural,literary or political significance.
Examples
* Thorough the iron gates of life: * Thou by the Indian Ganges' side * tide
Of Humber would complain

* Imagery: It is a figurative language used to represent objects, actions and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses.
Examples
* Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide * Vaster than empires, and more slow; * But thirty thousand to the rest; * Deserts of vast eternity. * My echoing song: then worms shall try * And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust: * At every pore with instant fires, * And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour

* Tone: It is an attitude of a writer toward a subject or audience.
Examples
* Two hundred to adore each breast, * My echoing song: then worms shall try * And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust: * At every pore with instant fires, * Rather at once our time devour * And tear our pleasures with rough strife

QUESTIONS TO BE PONDERED OVER: * Is coyness a crime? * Why does the speaker call his lover a mistress and then a lady? * Vegetable love-----is it essential for life? * Is sex the ultimate solution to win over time? * Doesn’t the poet degrade womanhood? Think!!!!!! Analyse!!!!! and the real learning has just begun………. THANKYOU