To His Coy Mistress

“To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell was posthumously published in 1681 as part of the collection Miscellaneous Poems. Marvell, a metaphysical poet, wrote this piece in Restoration England, probably after the English Civil War. Marvell’s canonical lyric works are well-known today but were unheard of during his lifetime. Like Emily Dickinson, none of Marvell's poems were published until after his death. However, some of his satirical and other prose works were published during his lifetime.

Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” is his most famous poem; it is quoted in many other poems, books, and visual media properties. As a carpe diem poem, it argues that the speaker’s beloved should seize the day and engage in romantic activities. The premises for this argument include the inevitability of death and the destructive power of time. Marvell uses rhymed couplets and 46 iambic tetrameter lines, which is slightly longer than a standard-sized modern page.

Poet Biography

Much of Andrew Marvell’s life remains a mystery. He was born in the Yorkshire town of Hull in 1621; his father was a Calvinist reverend. Marvell completed his B.A. from Cambridge in 1639 and began a M.A., but left the university after his father’s death. Biographers have evidence that Marvell traveled in continental Europe during the English Civil War but, other than acquiring fluency in a number of languages, his activities there are unknown.

Marvell reappears in 1650 as Sir Thomas Fairfax’s daughter’s tutor and living at Nun Appleton House. From 1653 to 1657, Marvell tutored William Dutton. Biographers believe most of Marvell’s lyric poems were composed while he worked in these tutoring positions. In 1657, Marvell became an assistant to poet John Milton, who was a secretary for Oliver Cromwell--a major political figure in the Interregnum period before the Restoration.

It is believed that Marvell helped Milton avoid execution for his revolutionary writings and political actions after the Restoration brought Charles II into power. This was due to Marvell’s election to Parliament in the House of Commons, representing his hometown, Hull, from 1659 until his death in 1678.

Poem Text

Marvell, Andrew. “To His Coy Mistress.” 1681. Poetry Foundation.

Summary

“To His Coy Mistress” is 46 lines long; each line is written in iambic tetrameter and is part of a rhyming couplet. There are no full stanza breaks, but Lines 1, 21, and 33 are indented, giving the poem a three-part structure. Overall, Marvell’s poem is a carpe diem poem, intended to persuade a lover to seize the day, romantically, with the speaker.

In the first part, the first-person speaker (who can be read as Marvell himself) hypothesizes what would happen if time and distance were of no concern for him and his beloved. They could flirt and go on long walks. The beloved would have time to rebuff the speaker’s advances, and his love for her would increase while she played hard to get. He would spend ages praising all parts of her, from head to toe.

The next part contrasts with the first; here, the speaker focuses on time’s greatest threat: death. In death, the beauty that the speaker longed to spend ages praising will be destroyed. His praises can no longer resonate in the tomb, and worms will penetrate the lady’s corpse without her consent. This will destroy her body’s virginity and the speaker’s passion.

In the final part, the speaker makes his bid for consummating their love sooner rather than later. He argues that they should give into animal passion (comparing them to birds) while they are young and lustful, instead of getting chewed up by time. Giving into pleasure will thwart time: They will be the ones chased (by the symbolic sun) and devouring life.