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"TO HIS COY MISTRESS" (ANDREW MARVELL).
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Examines poem of seduction: speaker, object of affection, poem's argument, dramatic structure.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Examines poem of seduction: speaker, object of affection, poem's argument, dramatic structure.
Paper Introduction:
Andrew Marvell was one of the so-called metaphysical poets of the seventeenth century, a title conferred on a group of poets with certain similar approaches by Herbert Grierson and T.S. Eliot. Eliot himself notes that "[n]ot only is it extremely difficult to define metaphysical poetry, but difficult to decide what poets practice it and in which of their verses" (Eliot 23). Grierson offers a definition when he states that metaphysical poetry is poetry which "has been inspired by a philosophical conception of the universe and the role assigned to the human spirit in the great drama of existence" (Grierson 3).
"To His Coy Mistress" is a poem of seduction offered as an argument directed at the lady of the title. Now, he offers an argument as to why she should submit to him, and he uses an extended metaphor to describe the life-cycle, to show how short
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"The Metaphysical Poets." In William R. There is an objective truth, and there is the truth oflove. New York: McGraw- Hill, 1994. . Vast amounts of time could be spent on praisingeach of the lover's attributes. Some criticsin effect psychoanalyze the poet in terms of imagery in the poetry, as canbe seen when Philip Edwards considers thematic elements in sonnets writtenfor the so-called Dark Lady, the presumed recipient of a sequence of poems(Edwards 17-32). Ltd., 1968.Rylands, George. The work can be taken on its face value, examinedtextually and/or structurally and expected to stand on its own, or the workcan be examined in terms of external matters such as the life of theartist. Atthe same time, it is also true that connections made between the work ofart and the life of the artist are not sufficient to determine whether thatwork is valuable or not. The two strains, one religious and the other folk-lore,intertwine. Shakespeare and the Confines of Art. Rousseau wrote, The first person who, having enclosed a plot of land, took it into his head to say this is mine and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society (Rousseau 44).The garden such as is referred to in this poem is such a plot of land, butit is shaped as a garden as individuals try to evoke the Gartden of Eden inthier own small way. Adams, Samuel Holt Monk, George H. . 9-11). The lovers know the objective truth, but they agree to lie. Works CitedAlden, Raymond Macdonald. References are made to the era beforethe biblical Flood, ancient India where rubies are found, and thepossibility of converting the Jews to Christianity in some distant future.These references extend the time frame and show how much time the actionsof the lover would take if it were possible. Kenneth Burke developed the dramatism approach to unify rhetoric andpoetic in a single analytical framework The relationship between theaudience and the communicator is most important: Audiences sense a joining of interests through style as much as through content. . Here, though, thestructure is controlled, with each name carrying the audience further intothe nature of the military evil being contrasted with the garden. And wherefore say not I that I am old? New York: Duffield & Comapny, 1922.Edwards, Philip. There are two basic ways to approach a poem, just as there is withany work of art. The naming of parts takes place on one day, a day ofclassification, but in the opening lines the poet classifies first the daysthemselves by detailing what takes place on each: Today we have the naming of parts. The story is told in Genesis as theserpent seduces Eve into partaking of the forbidden fruit: "In thisaccount everything hinges on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Andrew Marvell was one of the so-called metaphysical poets of theseventeenth century, a title conferred on a group of poets with certainsimilar approaches by Herbert Grierson and T.S. Discourse on the Origin of Inequality. In Sonnet 25, one of the "Dark Lady" sonnets, Shakespeare develops acause-and-effect relationship between love and truth that is not as clear-cut as it might seem. Folk-Lore in the Old Testament. However, love creates an illusion of trust, though each lover knowsthat lies are being told, that they are telling them as well, and that thelie must be protected for the love to continue: Oh, love's best habit is in seeming trust, And age in love loves not to have years told: Therefore I lie with her and she with me, And in our faults by lies we flattered be (9-12). Cambridge at the University Press, 1964.----------------------- 4 From the first, thisact is linked with nature: "Iaponica/ Glistens like coral in all of theneighboring gardens" (4-5). Eliot. Marvell extends this situation through numerousreferences to events in history and so creates a sense of time as acontinuing and rapidly-moving element in both life and the poem. The argument in the firststanza is that the lovers could wait if they had the time to do so; in thesecond stanza, the poet says that they do not have the time; and in thethird stanza, the poet concludes that the lovers should not wait given thecircumstances of life. Shakespeare's poetry only reflects the beginning of his powers as apoet and dramatist, and after all, his plays are themselves poetic andstructured on metric principles. New York: W.W. "Shakespeare the Poet." In A Companion to Shakespeare Studies, 89-115. A First Look at Communication Theory. Romantic poetry was seen as spontaneous, and nomatter how polished, it gave the impression of being impromptu, with that"spontaneous overflow" noted by Wordsworth. Shakespeare was primarily an Elizabethan poet, meaning that hereflected the prevailing poetic conventions of his age and was especiallyindebted as a poet to Spenser, Marlowe, and Lyly: Shakespeare. The speaker makes this clear in the beginning: When my love swears that she is made of truth, I do believe her, though I know she lies. The naming of the parts is set against the world of nature, andsome of the names imitate nature while serving the interests of deathrather than life. The poems, and especially the sonnets,have been depicted as mysterious precisely because they do not fit therules of the sonnet-cycle and range more widely in terms of subject matterthan was common. The speaker is trying to persuade his mistress to let him make loveto her. Today we have naming of parts (1-4).This classification leads to the development of the further classificationof the parts, and naming the parts makes them real. Works CitedAbrams, M.H., E. "Metaphysical Poetry." In Keast, op. Raymond Macdonald Alden links the sonnets to atradition in poetry, the English sonnet as written by Sidney and Daniel andthe use of the conceit as a linguistic image carried through the poem.Shakespeare used the conceit, but it was not as central or essential as itwas in the poetry of Sidney (Alden 1 5). Eliot himself notesthat "[n]ot only is it extremely difficult to define metaphysical poetry,but difficult to decide what poets practice it and in which of theirverses" (Eliot 23). New York: Tudor Publishing, 1923.Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Harley Granville-Barker (ed.). In the first stanza,the poet describes all that could be done if there were time--the two couldtravel the globe seeking treasure to prove their love, and they could gobeyond time: "I would/ Love you ten years before the Flood:/ And you shouldif you please refuse/ Till the Conversion of the Jews" (7-1 ). London: Metheun & Co. Her age is not clear except that she is young, probably in hertwenties, with the beauty intact as it will not be as she ages. put his head and heart to that Elizabethan school which begins with Wyatt and Surrey and includes Spenser, Sidney, the singers and sonneteers, the school from which the rebellious Donne played truant (Rylands 93-94).In this sonnet, the structure of the sonnet itself shapes the argument.The first four lines set up the premise, that the lovers lie to one anotherto show that they understand the ways of the world. The poet wrote frominspiration rather than consideration. Ford, and David Daiches. Grierson offers a definition when he states thatmetaphysical poetry is poetry which "has been inspired by a philosophicalconception of the universe and the role assigned to the human spirit in thegreat drama of existence" (Grierson 3). who inturn speaks to the trainee and not directly to the reader. Chicago: Hackett, 1992. Shakespeare. And tomorrow morning, We shall have what to do after firing. Burke says the effective communicator can show consubstantiality by giving signs in language and delivery that his or her properties are the same as theirs (Griffin 3 9).In this poem, the relationship is established in the dramatic structure ofthe poem as the speaker addresses a silent woman. The theme is that these actions in learning how to kill do not fitwith the life-affirming reality of nature in the garden, and the garden canmean the Garden of Eden and thus show how far we have fallen from theoriginal intention of the Creation. Time is acharacter in this poem, always moving onward and dragging human beings withit, aging them. Interestingly, the poet here evokes some of the garden iamgery ofRomantic poetry while using the classification structure to show a verydifferent tradition. " (Frazer 16). The poem is not a dialogue, however, in thatthe trainee is speaking to the reader only and not to the trainer. But today. Classification is a human action taken tomake sense of a world that is complex and that is difficult to understandwithout imposing some order on the chaos. . Now, he offers an argument as to whyshe should submit to him, and he uses an extended metaphor to describe thelife-cycle, to show how short it truly is, and so to argue that time isfleeting and so the lovers should consummate their love while they may.The woman is "coy" because she has been resisting the advances of the poet,and her coyness is a crime to him because he wishes to make love to her andshe is resisting him. Talbot Donaldson, Hallet Smith, Robert M. Love and lies are therefore directly linked, creating a lover'skind of truth which allows such things as age to be overlooked: Although she knows my days are past the best, Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue; On both sides thus is simple truth supprest (6-8).Wishing to make and maintain a good impression on the beloved is anathemato truth. The poet writes about the day during military training when the partsof the gun are named, and each name is given here as the speaker learns theroutine. There are two speakers, the first being the trainee in the openingstanza, and the other being the trainer who describes what each trainee hasand does not have as he names the parts. (9-1 ).The conceit carried through in this poem is that truth is flexible in loveand that the appearance of truth in love is more important than actualtruth. After the fall,though, God decides that man is not worthy of this gift and so decrees thatnone may partake of its fruit and live forever. Shakespeare exemplifies the Renaissance precisely becausehis intellect ranges so widely and delves into so many areas of human life. The Fall of Man refers to the events in the Garden of Eden inwhich Adam and Eve disobeyed God. Frazer notes that there is some confusion in that thereare two trees, the second the tree of life, which confers immortality.This tree plays no part in the story of the fall, and it also has noprohibitions against anyone partaking of the fruit. Works CitedEliot, T.S. Keast. The poetcompares his love to a vegetable which would grow slowly until it coveredvast empires of space. The poem is written inthree stanzas in the shape of an argument. The conceit for Shakespeare isoften less concrete and centers more on virtues, states, or values to beprized. (1-2).One reason for this agreement on the part of the speaker is because to dootherwise would be to show himself to be untutored int he ways of theworld. For one thing, the lovers are free with what thetruth really is. It is certainly true that the artist draws on his or her own life,which if nothing else is a formative experience that determines how theindividual thinks and thus how the individual shapes his or her work. Marvell intertwines these philosophical concepts with theseductive argument of the speaker. The tone is matter-of-fact, which onlymakes the horror of what military training leads to all the more terrible. The next four addressthe issue of age and the lie that is accepted between the lovers. The garden imagery usually indicates en evocation of nature in theform of the garden and greenery, but it also usually includes an implicitreference to the Garden of Eden specifically and so indicates a return toinnocence. cit., 3-19.Griffin, Em. In doing this, Marvell draws on mythology and history tocreate a vision of time as an entity which is acting against the interestsof lovers, though at the same time love itself becomes a timeless qualityto be sought and enjoyed. Yesterday, We had daily cleaning. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971.Grierson, H.J.C. Seventeenth- Century English Poetry, 2 -31. . .. There isa shift as the poet asks questions about the issues involved: But wherefore says she not she is unjust? The poet may use logic to develop his argument, butat heart he is pleading for her to agree with him. Human beings have longlooked back to an earlier era when they were supposedly closer to nature,whether this be in the Garden of Eden or, in political terms, the "state ofnature" discussed by Rousseau and Locke. The speaker in the poem classifies the things of military lifeand the things of the world. After that, the lover'sbeauty will fade, and no longer will she hear her lover's voice. An approach using aspects of the artist's life,such as psychoanalytic criticism, is difficult with a poet like WilliamShakespeare, for his life is not known in any great detail. Norton, 1962.Frazer, James George. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume 2. "To His Coy Mistress" is a poem of seduction offered as an argumentdirected at the lady of the title. The emphasis was now placed on thefree activity of the imagination (Abrams et al. In Henry Reed's "The Naming of Names," classification is used overtlyas a way of making a point about military training and about how we viewthe world. The first speaker returns in thelast stanza, and in both the first and last stanza, the speaker makesreference to the garden and the bees in the gardens and so brings in thenatural world as a contrast. The main point of the poem is that the poet is arguing with hismistress to seduce her and pointing to the way time passes for support.Yet, other themes are also involved, including love, fleeting time, andhuman mortality. Classification is one way ofdoing this. This sense that there is notenough time is something we have all felt at some time, and I know olderrelatives who tell me they have felt it more as they grow older. In the second stanza, however, a change takes place with the word"But" showing a disagreement with the possibilities raised in the firststanza: "But at my back I always hear/ Time's winged Chariot hurryingnear:/ And yonder all before us lye/ Deserts of vast eternity" (21-24).This vast expanse of time is barren because the lovers will be dead, andthey only have the here and now to do anything. The poet says there simply is not enough time for humansto put off doing what they want, and he uses this as an argument to seducehis mistress.
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