To His Coy Mistress

-Andrew Marvell

Andrew Marvell was an important English poet who is best-known for his satire. His notable works
include ‘The Unfortunate Lover’ and ‘To His Coy Mistress.’ To His Coy Mistress’ is a beautiful love poem
based on a gentleman wooing his mistress to make love with him. To His Coy Mistress’ is written in
iambic tetrameter, where the lines consist of four iambic feet. The poem “To His Coy Mistress” is 46-lines
long with three sections. The poem “To His Coy Mistress” is written in rhyming couplets. It maintains
AABB rhyme scheme.

The poem begins with the speaker talking to his shy ladylove (coy mistress). He opines that if they
had plenty of time and space in this world to live, then her shyness would not be considered a crime. So,
the speaker calls his ladylove’s present shyness a crime. The speaker seems to be trying to convince his
‘coy mistress’ about the mortality of human life. Moreover, he is talking about love. If they had enough
time, his beloved would sit beside the river Ganga in India and collect some valuable stones like rubies.
On the other hand, the speaker would sit on bank of river Humber complaining to the river about her
beloved not coming to him. Thus, they would pass the days.

In the next line, the speaker says he would love his mistress for “ten years before the flood”. This
alludes to the Great Flood in Christian history. Also, his mistress could refuse his proposal until the
“Conversion of the Jews”, which refers to the day of Christian judgement prophesied for the end of times
in the new testament’s Book of Revelation. He would not mind as they will have enough time to make
love. The speaker claims that his love is a “vegetable love”. He compares his love with vegetable because
his love grows slowly and organically, without any external force. Then the speaker goes on to describe
how he would have praised each and every part of his beloved’s body. He says he would have consumed
a hundred years in praising her eyes and gazing at her forehead. The lover would take two hundred years
to adore each of his ladylove’s breasts. Also, he would take thirty thousand years for praising rest of her
body. The speaker claims that he would have consumed a lifetime to praise each part of her beloved’s
body. The speaker claims that his beloved deserves to be praised like this. She is so beautiful and so
charming.

The speaker describes the situation after death. In our destined tomb, our beauty will slowly but
surely turn into dust. The speaker’s song would not be heard from her coffin. Everything will vanish and
turn to dust there. The speaker speaks of her virginity that she has preserved for a long time. The worms
would destroy this long-preserved virginity there in the coffin. The speaker tries to make his lady realize
that things like beauty and virginity are of no use after death. Not only her virginity, but also her honour
will turn to dust. . At the same time, his lust for her beauty too will turn into ashes. Though the lover
finds the grave a “fine and private place” as nobody can’t see them there, it’s not the place where lovers
should “embrace”.

The last section starts with “now therefore”. It means the speaker will now talk about the things they
need to do right now before the time flies. He says that youth is the best part of the life to enjoy. At this
time, one becomes energetic and passionate. The skin is as fresh as the morning dew. He suggests that
they should indulge in physical lovemaking (‘sport’ hints at a sexual play) without wasting time. This is
like making hay while the sun shines.
The speaker now suggests that the two lovers should be like passionate preying birds (like eagle, hawk
etc.) and eat before time eats them. He means to say that unless the lovers enjoy their time at their
youthful heights, time won’t wait for them. The speaker now suggests that they should unite all their
strength and passion along with their sweetness to get the pleasure of love. Life Is just an iron gate that
doesn’t open easily. It is filled with struggle and resentment (rough strife). With all their strength and
passion, the lovers will tear the iron gate to get that happiness.

To His Coy Mistress — Themes

Love

“To His Coy Mistress” is basically a love poem. Like most other metaphysical poems, this also deals with
love, beauty, Sexuality etc. The speaker wants to make love as soon as possible. In exaggerated
traditional references of lovemaking, the speaker expresses how much he loves his coy mistress. But the
lady is here not responding to the lover’s call. So, the speaker-lover is desperately trying to convince her
to make love with him without wasting time, as they are at their height of youth now. The love expressed
here is more physical and sensual than spiritual, as we generally see in Donne’s metaphysical poems like
The Flea, The Good Morrow etc.

Brevity of Life

The speaker of the poem is haunted by mortality, the shortness of this earthly life. He highlights the
destroying power of time in the second section of the poem with references of “time’s winged chariot”,
“grave”, “desert of vast eternity”, “worms” etc. If they had enough time, they could make love in a
luxurious way. But he knows it is impossible. So, he wants to do it before death. Death can’t be delayed
or defeated. The motto of the speaker is to enjoy as much pleasure as possible before death comes.

To His Coy Mistress — Symbols

Time’s winged chariot

It’s a very powerful symbol used in the poem “To His Coy Mistress”. Time and mortality are the prime
concern of this poem. It means mortals can’t escape from the destroying power of time. Death will come
in its swift way. We can do nothing to defeat time. So, when we get the opportunity, we should use it.
However, the winged chariot represents time’s inevitability and its upper hand over mortals.

Deserts of Eternity

Another symbol used in the poem is the phrase “Deserts of vast eternity” in the second section. The
speaker has no reason to believe that the future will be any less fruitful than the present. However, the
world will no longer contain the possibility of love between himself and his mistress. As far as he is
concerned, this lack of love renders the next world barren and lifeless, an eternal, loveless desert.

Birds of prey

The speaker imagines themselves as amorous preying birds devouring time. Rather than being time’s
prey, we can prey upon time if we can make the most of it. By using this metaphysical conceit, the
speaker tries to convince his lady to make love at the earliest.

Sun
In the final couplet of the poem “To His Coy Mistress”, the sun is used as a symbol for time as a whole.
The speaker says that he cannot make the sun wait but can surely make him run. He means to say that
though he cannot preserve their youthful days for time unlimited, they can surely throw a challenge at
the run of time by enjoying their present time to the fullest.

The major theme of the poem is carpe diem. Carpe diem is a Latin phrase that means “seize the day!”.
Andrew Marvell loved this theme and wrote many poems based on it. In this poem, the poet says that
waiting for the right moment to make love, is nothing but the wastage of time. The poetic persona and
his beloved should indulge in physical love before their bodies start to become old.