Marveling His Coy Mistress

Essay by ljsierraCollege, UndergraduateA, July 2007

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In reading, and analyzing this poem, I found some very interesting points that Marvell brought up. I believe that the main point that he was trying to convey is that life is very short, so while we are here with each other (him and his love) let us procreate, and make love in accordance with what we were put here to do. When you read this poem, you get the sense that he is being flirtatious with the reader, which also makes the reader think that he was being flirtatious with the mistress in order to convince her to copulate.

The first part of the poem, via numerous romantic suggestions, gives the impression that infinite and timeless love can prosper between two consenting lovers. As the poem opens, the speaker's heart tells the object of its desire that once its love is requited, time and majesty will stand still as they endure the simple pleasures in life.

Speaking of "passing our long love's day" (4) as a metonym for an actual eternity of a rich love, Marvell surely marvels his prospective lady as he argues their love at the prime of life can accomplish the most impossible things. He begins to tell her all these sweet lines about how he could spend eternity with her. For instance, he says on line 11, "My vegetable love should grow vaster than empires, and more slow ..." In these two lines he is trying to tell her how his love will grow more and more every time he sees her. He will love her until the end of time. A few lines later he continues to talk about his everlasting love. He begins to divide his love up between her body parts. He promises to her that he will dedicate a hundred years...