To His Coy Mistress

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1681

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Literary Context

Andrew Marvell is generally considered a metaphysical poet. However, the term "metaphysical" is debated among scholars; some argue that baroque is a better term. Broadly, metaphysical poetry refers to a group of poets writing in the 17th century. Metaphysical poetry is marked by complex metaphors, intellectual argumentation, and obscure style. At the heart of this genre, poetry seeks to join the physical plane of existence with the metaphysical one.

John Donne is the most famous metaphysical poet (some scholars offer the term The School of Donne as an alternative to metaphysical poetry), although George Herbert is also highly influential. Marvell emulates some of Donne’s tropes in “To His Coy Mistress”: a secular viewpoint that argues for physical intimacy over distant worship of the beloved.

Philosophical Context

The metaphysical poets’ agenda to mix the physical with the metaphysical stands in opposition to another 17th century set of ideas: the Cartesian divide between mind and body. French philosopher Rene Descartes penned the famous line “I think, therefore I am,” as well as many other lines arguing that the mind is the seat of both intellect and self, and its non-material nature takes precedence over the material body. Descartes’s mind-body dualism proposes the body cannot think. Marvell and the other metaphysical poets rejected the French philosopher’s ideas, and the older foundations for his dualism, such as the writings of Saint Augustine.

Historical Context

Marvell lived through the Stuart Restoration, which politically shook England in the 17th century. Before the 1660 Restoration, Marvell assisted John Milton in his position as a secretary for Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell, and the Commonwealth, held power in the period of time between two Stuart monarchs, Charles I and Charles II. When Charles II took the throne, restoring the Stuart line, supporters of Cromwell were at risk of execution. Marvell is noted for helping Milton avoid execution after the Restoration. Additionally, the Interregnum period (the period between Stuart kings) included a resurgence of Puritanical thought and culture, such as politicians closing theaters and banning gambling. Cromwell and his political allies fought against these restrictions on the arts.

A piece of historical information directly relating to Marvell’s poem is the development of Christian calendars. Calendaring changed when state religion changed because of the variations that come with using a solar calendar and theological discrepancies about holy days. One of the epochal dates Marvell mentions is the “conversion of the Jews” (Line 10). Notably, Judaism uses a lunar calendar, which has been more consistent over long periods of time than the calendar that was changed by Catholic, Protestant, and other Christian sects. Marvell heavily relies on the sun as a symbol of time, which comes from the English calendar, originally chronicled by Bede in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People.