1. How is the idea of desire explored in ‘To His Coy Mistress’ and one other poem (‘Ghazal’)?
(A-A* answer)
In ‘To His Coy Mistress’, the poet conveys the idea that desire is something that should be acted upon. This
is insinuated in the phrase “let us sport us while we may” which means that they should enjoy each other
whilst they have the chance. In this case, it is implied that they should not wait to have a sexual
relationship but, instead, act on their desires at once because life is short. This is implied in the phrase
“while we may”, suggesting that they will not have forever to act upon their desires so they should do so
now rather than regret not doing so on their death bed – an idea further supported in the following line
“rather at once time devour” which suggests that, if they wait too long to act on desire, they may find that
time will have devoured the woman’s virtue and virginity instead, meaning she may die before she has the
chance to fulfil her desires. As such, a further interpretation of this is that they should at once use all their
time to “devour” each other, implying they should have sex and enjoy exploring all of each other rather
than regret not doing so once they are dead. The phrase “sport us” also implies the idea that they should
enjoy fulfilling these desires, metaphorically inferring that sex is a kind of “sport” and that, like sport, it
should be enjoyed and perhaps even seen as a healthy thing to do.
The idea of desire is also explored in the poem ‘Ghazal’. This time, however, desire is presented as
something that creates a sense of longing in the phrase “don’t hang on my lips, come and I’ll come too
when you cue me”. This implies that the speaker in the poem doesn’t want the object of her desire to
“hang” or hold back. Instead she longs for him to ‘make his move’ and indicate to her that he wants more
than just kissing but wants to pursue a sexual relationship so that she can fulfil her desire, as implied in the
phrase “come and I’ll come too” but only after he has given her a “cue” or signal that it is ok to do so. This
sense of longing for desire to be fulfilled and that it has not yet happened is also communicated in the
phrase “arms that never knew me”. This suggests that the speaker longs to have the arms of the man she
loves around her, but that as they “never knew me” this hasn’t happened yet. It also implies that perhaps
desires will not always be fulfilled – these arms that she longs for may “never” know her – she is almost
accepting that the fulfilment of desires that she longs for may never happen. Furthermore, it is almost as if
she doesn’t want them to happen if he doesn’t feel the same way, implied by the fact that she says she
wants her desires to be fulfilled only “if” she is “the laurel leaf in your crown”, symbolically meaning that
she only wants to have his arms around her if she is as important to him as he is to her. This is in contrast
to the ideas of desire and its fulfilment presented in ‘To His Coy Mistress’, in which the speaker is not so
concerned about how the object of his desire really feels but is more interested in persuading her that a
sexual relationship is a good idea because otherwise her “long preserved virginity” will “turn to dust” and
that it will be taken anyway but by “worms” implying that she will lose it in death (taken by the worms that
will eat her rotting corpse) and it will be worthless if she does not give it away in life. It is almost suggesting
it is something she should do, even if it is not what she wants, because otherwise it would be a waste and
she would have let the speaker down, as he states, turning “all my lust” into “ashes”. This is in opposition
to the idea in ‘Ghazal’ that desires should only be fulfilled “if” both parties really want it.
The idea that desire is something that should be fulfilled because time is running out is also suggested in
the structure of ‘To His Coy Mistress’. The first stanza is written in tetrameter, suggesting that the speaker
is trying to put together a calm, controlled, rational and persuasive argument to present to the object of
his desire as to why they should have sex. However, by the second stanza, the speaker’s desire and, more
importantly, the need to have it fulfilled as soon as possible takes over and he breaks away from the
controlled tetrameter form, almost as if he is in a rush or is “hurrying” to have his desires fulfilled and, as

2. such, his control over them is failing, just like the loss of control over the poem’s form. This is in contrast to
‘Ghazal’, in which the structure of each stanza remains the same throughout. Each stanza is a self-
contained idea across two lines. This again creates more of a sense of reflective and considered longing for
desires to be fulfilled. Each stanza is stating in a different way the speaker’s wish that “if” the object of her
affection feels the same way she does, then she hopes and longs for him to fulfil her desires. In some ways,
it seems less desperate and persuasive than the sentiments in ‘To His Coy Mistress’, suggesting that she
has accepted that the fulfilment of her desires may never happen but that she can dream of it in each
stanza nonetheless.
The overall message in ‘To His Coy Mistress’ is that, if the speaker had “eternity” to woe his object of
desire, then he would do so but unfortunately “time’s winged chariot” is coming closer to them (meaning
they have a short time to live before death’s “chariot” comes to take them away) and therefore they
should skip the stage where they play “coy” and should thus forego modesty and any reservations about
having a sexual relationship to instead act upon their desires at once (presenting an argument in the form
of a syllogism). Likewise, the speaker in Ghazal is not modest about her desires, for she asks the object of
her affection to “every night renew me”, implying that she wants him to make love to her every night.
However, unlike in ‘To His Coy Mistress’, the overall message in ‘Ghazal’ is that desires should be acted
upon and fulfilled “if” both parties feel the same – it almost implying that if the object of the speaker’s
affection has reservation, perhaps it is best not to act upon sexual desire, for it won’t really fulfil her true
desire that they be “heaven and earth” to each other. It is clear that the speaker in ‘To His Coy Mistress’
has no such concern and really seems only interested in the fulfilment of his sexual desires, caring less
about what the object of his desire might want herself.