To His Coy Mistress And Young Love Analysis

Decent Essays
Poetry has been an aspect of literature that has been evolving for centuries and will continue to evolve for the centuries to come. Over the centuries hundreds of poets, such as Andrew Marvell have been able to open a world to new literature. Marvell lived during the 1600’s which was an era revolved around beauty and love and how to depict it within poetry. Marvell, along with many other poets of the era, took advantage of this interest in beauty and love and wrote multiple poems revolving around these topics. In Andrew Marvell's “The Unfortunate Lover," “The Definition of Love," “To His Coy Mistress," and “Young Love," the feelings and emotions of love are depicted in numerous ways, proving that love does not always end in happiness and …show more content…
The narrator says that because they have such little time on earth, they should spend it together while they are still young and beautiful. Yet, the narrator claims he is completely in love with the coy mistress and that he would love her forever if only time could allow it. This upcoming quote shows the narrator's proclaimed love and how he attempts to persuade the mistress with words,“He declares his love in fantastic, larger-than-life terms in the first twenty lines, because he is describing an admittedly unreal situation: his love would grow to span continents and stretch from the beginning of time to the end, he tells her, if only it could” (“To His Coy Mistress” 279). The main dilemma within the poem is the aspect of time; time is seen as a reason for the narrator's haste in being with the mistress. The narrator has attempted multiple times to get his coy mistress to fall in love with him, but she has refused him every time. Because of this, the narrator wrote this letter as an attempted plea for her returned love because of their limited years left. These lines from the poem show how the narrator feels harassed constantly by time and how he wants to be with the coy mistress to appease time, “But at my back I always hear time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near; and yonder all before us lie deserts of vast eternity” (Dali 1). Yes, the narrator does in fact want to have sex with this coy mistress, and that is truly his overall goal, but he claims that he has a powerful love for her. However, his obvious infatuation and lust for her is seen overwhelmingly throughout the poem. Marvell gives this poem a type of love and romance appeal, however it is fully about infatuation and obsession between the narrator and the mistress. The element of infatuation is seen a great deal of times especially since the narrator mainly discusses her

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In the play Romeo and Juliet By William Shakespeare the main characters Romeo and Juliet fall into a forbidden love with each other. The playwright, William shakespeare keeps a key information hidden from the reader. William Shakespeare maybe keeps this information hidden to keep the story a mystery, Why would a playwright conceal this information from us? In the play the two wealthiest families in Verona are enemies, but the audience never finds out why.…

    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gascoigne also creates a parallel between the man and a “scorched fly” within the poem by comparing the twos situation. He portrays how the man naturally looks in to the women’s eyes as if he’s incapable of containing his desire, or some external force is making him. This is similar to how flies naturally drift towards light as a natural instinct which is illustrated in the phrase "Which follows fancy dazzled by desire". This illustrates his desire is simply a natural instinct. Reiterating that he wants to start again but is in fear of rejection and is consumed by his sense of…

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Love Sometimes love can be wretched. And other times it can be exciting and charming. In these works of literature, love can be interpreted in many ways. Depending on certain situations that the writer is trying to express, changes how the characters see love.…

    • 1292 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, he strides to portray the tides of love! But even for Shakespeare, It’s quite hard to grasp the understanding of love for theirs always arising complications that get in the way of lustful love; Throughout the play Shakespeare undermines the notion that true love even ever existed. The play is directed in Athens of Greece. And is made to make the audience question what they know is love; it starts out with unhappiness for Hermia is getting no choice in who she loves, for her father, Egeus is her creator and must abide by his wishes of whom she’ll marry or love; If she doesn’t marry Demetrious her father’s approved choice, Theseus the Duke of Athens will have her put to death by Egeus’s…

    • 1037 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Is This the Love You Prefer? Love is a topic that many may find interesting, but is it only love itself or how the love is described within the reading? In the poems “She Walks In Beauty” by Lord Byron and the “Morning Poem” by Robin Becker we can see two ways that love is used differently. While some would love to talk about the beauty of their significant other, others would love to describe how they would treat their significant other. In a way one admires the beauty of a person while the other one admires the beauty of the body, and mind of a person.…

    • 1066 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gwen Harwood Poem Analysis

    • 1050 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The poets, Gwen Harwood, Geoff Goodfellow and Judith Wright, all explore the idea of “individuals and those they love” using imagery and form. Through female perspectives, each poet presents how loving another person can cause a conflict of interests, between wanting a fulfilling relationship and the inevitable pain and suffering that accompanies it. Imagery is used to illustrate how daily hardships can overpower an individual’s ability to love people close to them, resulting in conflicted emotions. In both In the Park and Suburban Sonnet, Harwood explores how women can lead mundane and unfulfilling lifestyles following motherhood. In In the Park, the woman loses passion and self-identity, as evidenced by her “out of date” clothing and an almost…

    • 1050 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Courtly Love in The Canterbury Tales Courtly love can be described as a medieval conception of love that emphasizes nobility and chivalry. “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales depicts some criteria necessary for true courtly love; however, not in a traditional sense.…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Selflessness In Beowulf

    • 1356 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Throughout the stories of Beowulf, Lanval, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Wife of Bath’s the concept of love is clearly shown through acts of selflessness, passion, and loyalty, love comes in many definitions, such as love to another person or love to a country. The act of being selfless is one of the biggest parts of loving something or someone. In Beowulf we see how he puts his country’s needs over his own. Beowulf dedicates his life to protecting others and being a good king. Beowulf could have easily walked away from that life, after all he is human and as the year goes by the thrill of fighting will fade and any human would crave a normal life.…

    • 1356 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind” (1.1234-35). Love is an irrational emotion, able to change as quickly and suddenly of the wind. People, in the name of love, are willing to overlook much in order to rationalize the actions and words of the subject of their affection. A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare uses wild pansies, night, and dynamic relationships to portray differing definitions of romantic love as a passionate, sometimes, irrational force able to blind lovers to the reality of the world. The first definition of love given is love is the the conquered surrendering to the conqueror.…

    • 1384 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    H. Jackson Brown, Jr., the author of New York Times best seller Life’s Little Instruction Book, once said, “Love is when the other person 's happiness is more important than your own.” Set in Verona during the 1300’s the romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet, written by Shakespeare, showcases how Romeo, Juliet, and Lord Capulet, try to fulfill their loved ones happiness. In doing so, they make destructive and precarious decisions which eventually lead to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. In the play, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s primary message of love is that it can lead to reckless and brisk decisions that often result in severe consequences.…

    • 1997 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Thus, despite his liaisons he always finds himself coming back to her. Yet, she is not content with this relationship. Her repetition of “I can do this” comes with a lack of sincerity. Just because she comes off as pure and sweet does not make it so. She clearly desires the man in the poem, she clearly disapproves of his womanizing.…

    • 1142 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, in an excerpt from his novel, “Egotism; or The Bosom Serpent,” recounts a puzzling condition that Roderick Elliston suffers from. Hawthorne’s purpose is to convey the idea that, love can also be a force of destruction that brings harm to the people who express it. He adopts a despairing tone through the use simile, repetition, and imagery which appeals to the emotions of the readers and supports Hawthorne’s purpose. Hawthorne begins his excerpt by addressing the assumed cause of Roderick Elliston’s puzzling behavior. He supports the tone of despair through the simile that implies the power that the condition has over him; “…his associates had observed a singular gloom spreading over his daily life, like those chill,…

    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    While the lover foolishly believes that his love can outlast time, the clocks scorn the lover, knowing that time will eventually conquer all. In the poem, the use of personification builds the two different attitudes of the clocks and the lover. When Auden writes of the lover, the personification adds joyful and strong emotion to the conversation the lovers are having. The lover says “the river jumps over the mountain /…

    • 1434 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Happily Ever Never In life, there are two different kinds of love stories, ones with blissful endings, and some with wretched endings. Not all stories can end with happy endings. Throughout history people have been searching for the love of loves. In “The Lady with the Dog” there is a glimpse of that love, and in “Chrysanthemums”, we see that love torn apart.…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hero And Leander Analysis

    • 1346 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In literature, love has always been a concept of great debate, although, what exactly is love? Pamela C. Regan, from Los Angeles University, explains that “…A person who experiences sexual desire for another individual, along with other emotional or psychological events, may characterize his or her state as one of ‘being in love…’” (Regan 139). However, does this sexual desire always breed emotion? When one thinks of love, thoughts of tenderness, kindness, and romance often arise with it.…

    • 1346 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays