Nicole Leone
Professor MinassianEnglish 1102
28 September 2014
“To His Coy Mistress” Andrew Marvell, in his poem “To His Coy Mistress”, has his reader picturing a man that is desiring a woman and would go to the ends of the earth to be with her. After the first section of this poem, the speaker’s tone changes, from I would wait forever to be with you, to I simply feel it would be a waste of time to wait a moment more. He uses logic while painting a picture of growing old, impending death, and dying a virgin. While Marvell in his first section gives us the hundreds and thousands of years the speaker would spend adoring this woman, in the first sentence is a clue as to what the change in tone will develop into. “Had we but world enough, and time” lets the reader know that he will divulge in his lines to come why they must commence their affairs immediately. His hastiness comes with reasoning and unearths the contriteness of not being together instantly. His words “But at my back I always hear Time’s winged chariot hurrying near;” tells his coy mistress that death is imminent and the clock is ticking. No one ever knows their fate and how long they have on this earth is how the speaker uses logic on this woman. She may never know the pleasures of love if she does not give in to his desires. He perverts her mind with visions of her decaying corpse in a grave and having nature devour her body. He purposely fills her head with this gruesome image, he makes her insides turn and has her feel an enormous sense of uneasiness. Very clever and manipulative, as he already knows his next maneuver is to bring her back to a state of bliss. I am unsure of how Marvell uses the word “quaint” in the line “And your quaint honor turn to dust”. Is he bold enough to be referring to her genitals, or is he using the word as a way to describe her honor as in fine or elegant? The next section of this poem, also