Figurative Language in To His Coy Mistress.
The poem by Andrew Marvell "To His Coy Mistress" is that of intense passion for another. A man wants to seduce a woman very badly and Marvell does an excellent job using figurative language for the man to get his point across.
The poem is basically a chase and a race against time. "The individual and his desires come up against the outer world, life and time" (Lewis 265).
Had we but World enough, and Time,.
This coyness Lady were no crime.
We would sit down, and think which way.
To walk, and pass our long loves day.(1-4).
These lines from the poem are expressing the man's sarcassem when he says "think which way to walk" because you wouldn"t have time to just sit around and think about pointless things such as that. "The vision is at all times undercut by reminders of its unreality. First and most importantly, the grammar of the section is subjunctive, and every verb conforms to the mood of the opening condition: "Had we but world enough, and time"" (Press 278).
"The lines 11 and 12, "My vegetable love should grow vaster than Empires, and more slow", recall the pastoral eroticism of Virgil's carves his mistress" name on trees and makes a joke about it, thereby misusing nature" (Summers 292). Summer says that the .
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traditional tempo of love is no longer valid" (292). Marvell is using figurative language in this sense to describe the love a man has for the woman. "The speaker speaks out of a desire that may be a transitory; he promises nothing beyond an experience of shared joy" (Creaser 304).
The lady of "To His Coy Mistress" is not speaking to the audience, yet the audience knows much about her. " we derive an image of her through her suitor's statements and implications the speakers rhetoric would lack an intelligible accomplished lover- (Press 278). The lady wants the man to want her more, to say more wonderful things to her.
