Start your 48-hour free trial to unlock this answer and thousands more. The speaker in “To His Coy Mistress” is trying to persuade the woman he's addressing to stop being coy—meaning
specifically that she should stop being shy about sex
. Even more specifically, he wants her to stop being shy about having sex with him.
What is the main theme of To His Coy Mistress?
The main themes in “To His Coy Mistress” are
the brevity of youth and carpe diem
. The brevity of youth: The poem's speaker emphasizes that the age of youth, passion, and beauty is short.
What is coy mistress about?
To His Coy Mistress is Andrew Marvell's best known poem. It focuses on
the lustful desires of a man attempting to entice a female virgin, the mistress, into sexual intimacy
. The poem is a tour de force, and has come to be known as a seduction poem or carpe diem (seize or pluck the day) poem.
What does the speaker say to his lover in To His Coy Mistress?
He says he would spend
a “hundred years . . . to praise / (her) eyes” and “Two hundred to adore each breast
.” The implication is that the woman has perhaps told him that she is not ready to have sex with him, possibly because he has not proven to her yet that he really loves her.
What is Vegetable Love In To His Coy Mistress?
Vaster than empires, and more slow; Then, we get one of the poem's most famous lines. The speaker starts telling the mistress about his “vegetable love.” … We think “vegetable love” is “organic love” – love
without the pressure of anything
but nature, a natural process resulting in something nourishing – vegetables.
What is the conclusion of the poem To His Coy Mistress?
Marvell ends with another reference to Apollo, concluding, “
Thus, though we cannot make our sun / Stand still, yet we will make him run
.” They cannot stop time, but they use it in a way that will leave them victorious. Belsey, Catherine. “Love and Death in ‘To His Coy Mistress.
What does the term marble vault mean?
In the lines “Thy beauty shall no more be found, / Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound / My echoing Song. . . .,” the “marble vault” is a reference to.
a. the grave and the Mistress's body
.
What is carpe diem poetry?
Carpe diem, (Latin: “pluck the day” or “seize the day”) phrase
used by the Roman poet Horace to express the idea that one should enjoy life while one can
. Related Topics: Hedonism Philosophy. Carpe diem is part of Horace's injunction “carpe diem quam minimum credula postero,” which appears in his Odes (I.
What is a youthful hue?
The simile “while the youthful hue /
Sits on thy skin like morning dew
” restates the speaker's desire, with a focus on his mistress' body. The “morning dew” is also an effective simile in that dew very quickly disappears as the day advances, just like her youthful appearance.
What is the full carpe diem quote?
Carpe diem, the phrase from the poet Horace (65 BC-8 BC), is usually translated from Latin as ‘seize the day'. … The full phrase carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero means
‘pluck the day, trusting as little as possible in the future'
.
What are the themes of carpe diem poetry?
In Latin, “Seize the day.” The
fleeting nature of life and the need to embrace its pleasures
constitute a frequent theme of love poems; examples include Andrew Marvell's “To His Coy Mistress” and Robert Herrick's “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time.”
Is carpe diem a philosophy?
Carpe diem, a phrase that comes from the Roman poet Horace, means literally “Pluck the day”, though it's usually translated as “Seize the day”. A free translation might be “Enjoy yourself while you have the chance”. For some people, Carpe diem serves as
the closest thing to a philosophy of life
as they'll ever have.
What does the phrase time's winged chariot signify?
“Time's winged chariot” means that
time flies or moves swiftly
. The speaker emphasizes the quick passage of time to argue that his beloved should accept his amorous advances soon.
Is iron gates of life a metaphor?
The “iron gates of life” in “To His Coy Mistress” is a metaphor that
represents the constraints of both time and social expectation
. Marvell's speaker and his lover's amorous encounter would defy or fight against the passage of time as well as the lady's pure reputation.
What does But at my back I always hear time's winged chariot hurrying near Meaning?
The speaker continues to argue that time is not in favor of his mistress's nervousness or his age. For instance, he says, “But at my back I always hear time's winged chariot hurrying near” (lines 21 and 22). In other words,
he is saying his time is running out quickly.
What is the opposite of Carpe Diem?
#2
Carpe Noctem
Literally the opposite of Carpe Diem, this one is perfect for all those all nighters you have to pull when you're too lazy to have done that 5000 word dissertation earlier in the term.
