Analysis of To His Coy Mistress Essay -- To His Coy Mistress, Andrew M

To his coy mistress is about sexual feelings and infatuation, based on the Italian tradition of courtly love - it is filled with compliments and references to sexual activity and deviancy but is generally a one sided love, the whole poem is about the man wooing the woman and persuading her that she should have sex with him. Throughout the first stanza the poet writes how he would love the woman, had they had all the time in the world. The love is much exaggerated. "I would love you ten years before the flood" This is clearly an exaggerated statement because the flood happened before Christ, before the poet or the woman even existed. This portrays that he would love her forever. "My vegetable love would grow vasterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦and more slow" The poet is talking about time, about his love growing slowly but surely over time. The reference to a vegetable the natural fruit of the earth symbolises how the love for the woman will grow over years, from a seed getting bigger over time- its natural and deep rooted love. The end of the poem becomes more persuasive and hasted. The poet gets more desperate for the woman to accept his offer and to agree to sleep with him. A clear indication of a change in tone is shown in stanza twoà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ "BUTà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ times winged chariot hurrying near" Where the word But is placed at the start of the sentence usually indicates that the statement before the but is about to be contradicted with a sentence of the opposite meaning (he was good BUT he is being bad) the use of personification verbs add to the tone of the poem; making time seem as a winged chariot emphasises the rush that the poet is in, .. ...time "Seemed night at noon day" Though in the poem the reader is not given a sense of 'hurrying' and anticipation but a sense of confusion portraying the emotional distress the poet is going through. As the poem progresses into the third and last stanza the poet writes of his rejection and his pain cause by the subject he had so hopelessly fallen in love with. "Is love's bed always snow?" this is a rhetorical question, comparing the of love which is thought to be warm and loving with passionate heat and comfort (positive) to snow; cold harsh snow, with no colour, which is bleak and which brings death to all living things (negative) - again the poet is using contrasting aspects in one sentence to show confusion too. The poet has been made to feel that love is a horrible, harsh and bitter feeling.