Analysis of a Poem Essay

Andrew Marvells rime To His Coy Mistress gives the reader a occupy to delve into the mind of the narrator as he tells of his whap for his mistress. This seems to be a simple enough theme, and indeed poets have been sounding turn up their barbaric yawps for quite some term over this issue of love, save what is so intriguing and memorable about Marvells waste on love is how ro objet darttic it is ( amorous in the romance look and non in the Romantic period period of poetry).He gives more of a taradiddle account of his love instead of the more fantastical accounts which accomp both any number of Poes songs to his lost Lenore or even of a slight stable vision of beauty that Rimbaud portends to in his Barbarian poem. Marvells take on romance and love is a very elegant poem in this essay Marvells elegant style and the elbow room in which he sets the scene with concrete and realistic details will be given strict attention along with the metaphor and use of allusion.To unh orse with, Marvell introduces the reader to the subject of the poem even before the poem is begun. He applies the adjective coy to his mistress which is a designulate full of connotations. With this password in mind in describing his mistress the reader is left to extol why the muliebrity is coy, or what makes her or causes her to be this way. Already the readers mind is a race toward an explanation of the char char. Thus, Marvell has succeeded in creating an send out of mystery around the object of his affection and thereby placing an enigmatic gradation to the poem even before one has read the first form.In typical romance fashion Marvell begins his poem with turn of the line which expresses things that atomic number 18 not but if they were he states what he and his love would do, Had we but military man enough, and time, This coyness, lady, were no villainy. (Marvell line 1-2). The word coy derives in part from the word coquettish which is a French word used to descri be forming the affections of the mated sex for personal gratification. Thus, it would seem that Marvell is painting out the object of his inclination to be a woman who has a lot of vanity and wishes to control his heart. Thus, the poem sets itself up to connotative notions of hedonism.This is states because the woman wants the older mans affections for no other reason except to have them She does not thirst his affections for love or money or any personal gain except for her own vanity. Thus, the lines stating if they hadbut domain enough (Marvell line 1) consequently her coyness would be more highly permitted and not a crime. Perhaps Marvell included this bit about crime because typically prostitutes are the ones who use coquettish techniques to acquire the attention of potential clients and thus the womans coyness is associated with sexual hedonism.Whatever the cause of the coyness (employment of unclouded ego) it is clear that the narrator does not mind the attention. A lthough, another take on this notion of universe coy could have more to do with the time period in which Marvell wrote the poem (1650) during which a woman was typically startle and not forward while in male company and and so this brave act of flirting caught the poet off guard. Continuing on with the fib part of the story, Marvell promote suggests in his poem what he and the young woman would venture out into their world and do We would sit down, and think which wayTo walk, and pass our long loves day. Thou by the Indian Ganges side Shouldst rubies find I by the tide (Marvell lines 3-6). hither Marvell gives a glimpse of his homelands geographic expedition into the world and name calling alien location by which these two could walk (or love by). Mainly, exploration was done in the East and this exotic atmosphere perhaps pairs wholesome with how brazenly the mistress is flirting with the narrator. Thus, Marvell is coupling the woman with the landscape by which he thinks she could better flourish- a place where being coy is not considered a crime.Thereby does Marvell transport this moment into a more exotic locale which hike up clog ups the idea that the poet is a romantic in the adept of wooing. To further illustrate Marvells romantic nature he states, make do you ten years before the flood And you should, if you please, refuse Till the revolution of the Jews (Marvell lines 8-10). This again refers to having a world of there own in which apparently time and space do not exist in any rational form or according to physical laws of nature which would intromit Marvell to have loved this woman since Noahs fated flood (again, support for the romance of the poem).The oddment line of this part makes lengthiness to the Jews a reference which alludes to the manner in which Marvell would love this mistress. That is to say that he would love her in the same strict fashion that the Jews never converted to Christianity despite the pursuit which was a tim e period that at the writing of this poem had terminate a hundred or years earlier but a memory that was still fervently in the minds of the people of Europe.Marvell connotes many unearthly themes in this poem that help to show his knowledge of religion which further creates an atmosphere to the poem (perhaps Marvell is even stating that he will love this woman in a platonic fashion or nonsexual way until they are married as the Bible suggests should happen between man and wife). This idea of physical love and abstinence from sex until marriage carries further into the poem as Marvell states, My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires, and more wearisome (Marvell lines 11-12)This concept of vegetable love means that Marvell will love this woman for her self instead of for her sex. This is derived from the fact that Marvell suggests a vegetable love quite than a fruit love fruits have a long stand with sex and sexual passions and because Marvell chose to not allude to fru it but to vegetable (meaning vegetative perhaps and therefore dormant, or rather, latent sexual performance or sex after marriage) in order to support his announcement of saving sex for marriage.Also, vegetables are a deep root correct which further illustrates Marvell desires to love this woman with a deep love not a purely fleshy love. If then Marvell is looking for a more lasting relationship with this woman it is no wonder that in lines 13 by means of 18 he expresses such a love through ages. Although the reader has already been exposed to the type of ageless love Marvell mutely promises this woman with the flood (an antiquarian allusion) he further tells of an ageless tie up between himself and this woman as well as the magnitude of this love with the following lines,An hundred years should go to praise Thine eyes, and on they eyebrow gaze Two hundred to adore each breast, But xxx thousand to the rest An age at least to every part, And the last age should show your hear t (Marvell lines 13-18). In these lines also, Marvell seems to telling of his hopes for this union. He desires a woman who has a true heart and therefore is not just interested in sex. He wants a beloved who will arrest by him in old age as well as in their youth. Marvell seems to be placing a lot of emphasis on brute enjoyment versus what he perceives to be a more pure form of love.Albeit both will exist in his relationship with this woman should they get married, what Marvell truly wants out of this relationship is a lasting companion. His many allusions to time seem to fit with this theory fairly well considering he mentioned loving her until the apocalypse (it is said that the Jews will not convert to Christianity until the end of the world which is when Marvell professed he would love this woman). However, it seems that Marvell has a change of heart toward the last lines of the poem when he seemingly begs the girl for sexual gratification.Thus, the poem itself presents a ti meframe of the poets thoughts leading from love to sex and back again. It seems that while Marvell desires a immaculate union he also requires a more carnal pleasure right away. There may be something rather male delivered in the lines Times winged chariot hurrying near (Marvell line 25) which speaks to not wanting to waste any more time being strangers but to gain union together. Thus, despite the poems romantic notions the poets theme remains clear pleasure and passion and love. plant life Cited Cullen, Patrick. Imitation and Metamorphosis The Golden-Age Eclogue in Spenser, Milton, and Marvell. PMLA Vol. 84, NO. 6 (Oct. 1969) 1559-1570. Hogan, Patrick G. Marvells Vegetable Love. Studies in Philology, Vol. 60, No. 1 (Jan. 1963) 1-11. Hyman, Lawrence W. Politics and poetry in Andrew Marvell. PMLA, Vol. 73, No. 5 Part 1. (Dec. 1958) 475-479. Legouis, Pierre. Andrew Marvell Further Biographical Points. The recent Language Review. Vol. 18, No. 4 (Oct. 1923), 416-426. Summers, Josep h H. Marvells Nature. EHL. Vol. 20, No. 2 (June 1953) 121-135. Tolliver, Harold. The Critical Reprocessing of Andrew Marvell. ELH, vol. 47, no. 1 (Spring 1980) 180-203.