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THE POEM: TO HIS COY MISTRESS – AN ANALYSIS OF ANDREW MARVELL’S

ART WORK

Andrew Marvell’s poem, To His Coy Mistress is one of his best pieces known far and

wide. In this poem, the poet brings out his emotional feelings about a woman and expressly

shows his desires for having the said woman as a mistress for sexual intimacy. The thematic

concerns in the poem are youthfulness, sexual pleasure and the celebration of beauty. The poet

also cites the aspect of death towards the end of the poem. This shall also be embarked on in the

analysis of the theme of celebration of beauty as well as love life and death.

These themes shall be discussed in this paper citing how the poet was able to bring out

meaning in each through his art. In this paper, I shall also cite the central theme and make an

analysis of how it has been viewed by the poet as he makes an effort of letting known his

feelings.

Having done this, I will focus on the styles of poetry employed by Andrew Marvell. The

poet has an array of words from which he chooses to make the poem an enticing one for the

intended mistress. He successfully employs some poem-writing skills and poetic skills to effect

his message. This is clearly seen in the said elements of poetry which include, inter alia; the

theme of the poem, the tone used to express his feelings in the poem, allusion, assonance,
consonance, personification, rhyme, simile among others. I shall, however, stick to the

aforementioned styles by clearly identifying where the poet brings out the picture of each in the

poem.

In summary form, I shall also give a conclusion on the elements of poetry employed by

the poet, an overview of what thematic concerns he brought out in the poem and how perfect it

was for it to be effectively used as a study poem. The poem’s lines from the three stanzas

provided therefrom shall be used to evidence the elements and themes enshrined hereinabove.

As a curtain raiser, it is prudent to bring out the themes of beauty, youthfulness and

sexual pleasure prior to expressing the elements of poetic styles used by Andrew. These themes

shall grace the elements discussed in this paper forthwith. Therefore, it is a necessity to get the

themes in context for ease of understanding. The theme of youthfulness has been expressed by

the poet where he states that, “…I would love you ten years before the flood…if you please,

refuse till conversion of the Jews.” (Marvell, 8, 9 & 10). In this case, the poet shows that they

would have had sufficient time had they fallen in love ten years before the flood, and he would

consequently be patient even if it took the longest time before the Jews were converted for the

love story to commence. His seduction in this line, presumably awes the woman since she is sees

the patience the man has for her to say a yes. Another state where the theme of youthfulness is

shown in “…the beauty shall no more be found.” (Marvell, 25). This is an expression by the poet

to remind the mistress that their time is limited, and her beauty shall only be evident so long as

she lives. This is what raises the notion of death in the poem where “worms” are deemed to be

waiting for elegance of the beautiful mistress upon her demise. The poet is not willing to come to

terms with that reality – that death is eminent since he definitely will lose his mistress to the

grave.
 This leads us to the other theme of love and death. The theme of love and death has been

exhibited in the poem where the poet, in the first stanza poses a question which begs the answer

to what love would be like if human had infinite of time to love. This is a hypothetical question

on the real world. This imagination, by the poet is what culminates to his desire of falling in love

with the mistress, for the longest time they lived since life is not finite. He brings out the aspect

of death at the end of his poem, and this has also been shown in the paragraph above. He states

that no one loves or embraces the grave, albeit the fact that it is private and fine a place.

(Marvell, 31 & 32).

The theme of beauty and sexual pleasure shall be encompassed in this paragraph. In his

piece, Andrew avers that, “Let us roll all our strength, and all our sweetness into one ball, and

tear our pleasures with rough strife…” (Marvell, 41, 42 & 43). This piece is a reflection of the

sexual pleasure that the poet has, and the feelings he has towards the mistress. The also wonder

on which place or direction they would take, “…to walk and pass our long love’s day.” (Marvell,

4). The two phrases above reflect the poet’s sexual pleasures and how he is able to bring the

feelings forth. This is a show of love and affection to “her coyness”.

On to the limb of the stylistic devices employed by the poet. The poem has been

expressive in nature because of how the poet categorically uses the stylistic devices to perfect his

message. These elements, as seen earlier in the introduction are; allusion, personification, theme

of the poem, the tone used by the poet, assonance, simile, rhyme and consonance. The styles or

poetic elements shall be discussed herein below.

The tone used by the poet is one of the elements for discussion. This is the ability of the

poet to express mood or feeling in the poem. From the thematic concerns hereinabove, it is

evident that the tone of the poet changes as the poem progresses. This depends on the theme of
discussion that the poet intends to bring out. For instance, the poet writes, “…I would love you

ten years before the flood…” (Marvell, 7 & 8) where he expresses his emotions and feelings on

how much he so loves the mistress. He also states, “Thine eyes, on thy forehead gaze…two

hundred to adore each breast.” (Marvell, 14 & 15). This line also shows the poet’s love for his

mistress and expresses the mood and feeling of love. The description he gives of the physical

appearance of the mistress sums up his inner feeling. When it is time to express the

unprecedented thoughts of till death do us part, the poet seemingly changes the tone of his poem

where he writes, “…thus though we cannot make our sun.” (Marvell, 45) which insinuates that

the poet knows too well that time shall come to pass, and their love will be under the grave after

their demise. This aspect is a show of the genuineness in the expression of feelings by the poet.

Therefore, the poet has successfully employed the element of a varying tone in his poem.

Besides that, there is the stylistic device of assonance. Assonance is the style where the poet

employs the rhyme which is seen in the vowels in words used in close proximity within the lines

of the poem. A good example is, “My echoing song; then worms shall try.” (Marvell, 27). In this

line, there is the repetition of the /o/ sound in “song” and “worms”. Assonance in this case is

meant to bring some musicality in the poem. The musicality helps the reader of the poem or the

poet not to forget the words in the lines thus enhancing some memorability. In addition to that,

there is also evidence of assonance in the line, “The grave’s a fine and private place.” (Marvell,

31). In this line, there is the repetition of the /A/ sound in “grave”, “private” and “place”. As is

seen in the case of the /o/ sound above, the /A/ sound is also meant to create a rhythmic pattern

in the poem that bears some musical sense as the poem is said.

The author also uses consonance in the poem. Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds

at the beginning of words in close proximity within a poem or a line in the poem. For example,
one would talk of “Peter Piper Picked Pepper” and the /P/ sound is repeatedly used at the

beginning of words. This is what consonance is. In our case herein, the poet has demonstrated

several aspects of consonance such as, “But thirty thousand to the rest.” (Marvell, 16). There is

the repetition of /TH/ sound in the words “thirty”, “thousand” and “the”. The consonant sounds

in this case play a role similar to alliteration and assonance where there is musicality in the

poem.

Apart from the ones above, the poet also used rhyme in his art work. The rhyme is

normally a free flowing set of words that a poet uses closely so that they bring some rhythmic

styles in the poem. The words used are what are referred to as the rhyme scheme. They can be

seen at the end of lines in the poem such as “But at my back I always hear…Time’s wingèd

chariot hurrying near;” (Marvell, 21 & 22) in this case, the poet has used the /-ear/ sound to bring

forth some rhythm in the poem in the last words of the two sentences. These are “hear” and

“near”. Another example is “Thy beauty shall no more be found; Nor, in thy marble vault, shall

sound” (Marvell, 25 & 26). There is the /-ound/ sound in “found” and “sound”.

The poet also used simile in the poem. This is the use of “like” to make comparison. In

the lines, “And now, like amorous birds of prey…Rather at once our time devour…Than

languish in his slow-chapped power.” (Marvell, 38, 39 & 40). This is used as a comparative

statement. in this case, the poet tries to compare between their state together with the mistress,

and the amorous birds of prey. This is also a way of employing stylistic devices to make the

poem captivating.

In conclusion, it is apparent that Andrew Marvell has been successful in applying stylistic

devices in his poem. He has also been able to address the thematic concerns raised in the first

limb of our discussion hereinabove. This is an implication of a perfectly done job in the piece of
art in “To His Coy Mistress”. Therefore, each of the limbs with regards to the question have been

exhaustively discussed in this paper. The necessity for stylistic devices expounded, and the need

for explicit explanation of the themes also brought out clearly.

Marvell, Andrew. To His Coy Mistress. Not dated.