Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Find the irony in Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress", giving examples.

"To His Coy Mistress", by 17th century English poet,
Andrew Marvell, is a notable example of metaphysical poetry, a type characterized by
among other traits, startling, fanciful metaphors and hyperbole or overstatement. In the
first section of the poem - from "Had we" to "at lower rate" - Marvell drives home his
theme of opportunism or carpe diem ('seize the day') through a
sustained set of ironic, overblown and deliberately insincere flatteries directed to the
young lady. "Had", the first word of the poem, is set in the subjunctive tense and
provides a grammatical counterpoint to the ironic fantasies that follow. To paraphrase
this section: If they had all the time in the world, then his lady could take a lengthy
journey to India (a remote and exotic place in the 17th century) to gather rubies by the
Ganges; then he would love her "ten years before" Noah's flood that swept away all
humanity, including lovers like himself; then she could refuse his advances until the
impossibly remote day when all Jews became Christians; and then he could amorously
linger for millenia in admiration over her physical beauty. But, as these ironies
imply, neither he nor the lady have any time for a long, drawn-out seduction, and thus
the poem concludes:   


Now let us sport us while
we may;

And now, like am'rous birds of
prey,

Rather at once our time
devour,

Than languish in his slow-chapp'd
power
.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comment on the setting and character of "The Fall of the House of Usher."How does setting act as a character?

Excellent observation, as it identifies how the settings of Poe's stories reflect the characters of their protagonists. Whet...