Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration in making something seem greater, better or larger than it might actually be. It puts emphasis on words and phrases to create a rhetorical effect on the reader. In Andrew Marvell's "To Coy his Mistress" he uses hyperbole to exaggerate and emphasize his statements to make a more effective poem. Hyperbole makes it seem almost unreal to the reader however still conveys the idea of the subject being compared or thought as something larger or greater that what it really is. Marvell first compares his love to that of a vegetable. The vegetable is supposed to represent something insignificant and small, yet at the same time growing, his love for her. He then goes on the claim that his vegetable love shall grow vaster or greater than empires. This statement is a critical point of hyperbole. He is greatly exaggerating the growth of his love to be the size of a massive empire. Believable or not this comparison gets the idea across that he is experiencing a great love. He then states his love will grow more slowly than first a hundred years. To overemphasize the years he once again uses hyperbole. He begins with one hundred years then moves to two hundred in which he still adores his love and ends with thirty thousand years to rest. Though excessive use of hyperbole can have the tendency to backfire on a writer and cause an undesired affect on the piece of work, Marvell uses it wisely and not excessively where the point is made and not overstated. Without the use of hyperbole the meaning of the poem may not take shape and would be understated. Losing the true meaning of the poem would defeat the purpose of writing it, hyperboles allows Marvell to clearly and fully write the emotions and meaning the poem is supposed to portray. .