development! This... SEE MORE Poem Text 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 love’s day. Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side 5 Should’st rubies find: I by the tide Of Humber would complain. I would Love you ten years before the Flood, And you should, if you please, refuse Till the conversion of the Jews.

1. To His Coy Mistress
Themes
Prepared by
Mahir pari goswami
Teaching assistant
GMC sihor

2. Themes
• Time
• Sex
• Mortality
• Freedom and Confinement

3. Time
• The speaker of Andrew Marvell’s poem, "To His Coy
Mistress," thinks that time is a super-villain out to
get him. He wants to flip the script and control
time. It’s not surprising that Marvell was concerned
with time. It was a hot topic in the 1600s.

4. • Marvell lived during the time of both Galileo Galilei
and Sir Isaac Newton, both of whom revolutionized
the way we think about time today. Time remains a
mystery to us, and Marvell’s poem gives us an
opportunity to explore that mystery

5. Sex
If time is the super-villain of Andrew Marvell’s "To
His Coy Mistress," then having sex is the super-
power he needs to gain control over his enemy. But,
sex isn’t so easy to come by. Possibly because only a
very special someone would understand the
speaker’s ideas about it.

6. • With wit and daring, the speaker discusses sex in
frank, beautiful, and disturbing language. Sex is
another one of those great mysteries that poets
never tire of exploring. Marvell’s contribution
perhaps paves the way for more open discussions
of sex and sexuality.

7. Mortality
• Mortality, otherwise known as "death," gets a
whole stanza in Andrew Marvell’s classic from the
1650s. The speaker presents his vision of the
afterlife. While beautiful in terms of the that words
the speaker uses to describe it, his vision is miles
away from hopeful.

8. • He thinks that dying is the ultimate lack of control.
It’s not as big of a downer as it sounds like. The
speaker is a very witty guy, and his treatment of
death makes for some of the most entertaining
pick-up lines since John Donne’s "The Flea."

9. Freedom and Confinement
• Andrew Marvell’s "To His Coy Mistress" is
constantly on the move between images of
freedom and images of imprisonment. As we read
why the speaker feels trapped, and how he thinks
he can get out, we feel the need to examine the
freedoms and confinements of our own lives. The
poem can feel claustrophobic at some moments,
but, at other moments, we feel all our confines
crumble.

10. Citation
• Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008, November 11). To
His Coy Mistress Mortality. Retrieved October 22,
2020, from https://www.shmoop.com/study-
guides/poetry/to-his-coy-
mistress/themes/mortality

11. • Thank you