The poem His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell is about a speaker trying to persuade his mistress to engage in a sexual relationship. In 3 sentences: The speaker argues they should seize the day and make love now, before time runs out, rather than waiting for some hypothetical future with unlimited time. He uses vivid imagery of time's chariot hurrying near and her beauty turning to dust after death to convince her. The poem explores themes of carpe diem and the brevity of life through the speaker's passionate pleas to his coy mistress.

1. Wednesday 1 st February 2012
Learning Objective:
To be able to infer, deduce and interpret
ideas about His Coy Mistress
Must: C Should: B Could: A
Starter: Find His Coy Mistress in your
Anthologies and read this to yourself
quietly. This is a challenging poem and
you need to pay attention to it.

2. Break it down!
There was a man falling in love with his
mistress. He wanted to make love to her, but
the mistress was shy and turned him down.
The speaker wrote the poem to the mistress in
order to persuade her to accept him.

3. Vocabulary
• 1. Coy - A coy person is shy, or pretends to be shy, about
love and sex. (The mistress)
• Ex: She gave a coy smile when he paid her a compliment.
• 2. Conversion - Someone changes his religion or beliefs.
(Conversion of Jews)
• Ex: It’s hard to believe his conversion to Christianity.
• 3. Vast - very large in area, size, quantity or degree;
immense (The speaker’s love for the mistress)
• Ex: A vast expanse of desert.
• 4. Chariot - fast-moving vehicles with two wheels that are
pulled by horses (Time)

4. • 5. Eternity - Eternity is time without an end or a state
of existence outside time, especially the state which some
people believe they will pass into after they have died.
• Ex: I have always found the thought of eternity terrifying.
• 6. Quaint - Something that is quaint is attractive
because it is unusual and rather old-fashioned. (The honor
of virginity)
• Ex: This may seem a quaint idea in thus age.
• 7. Vault- A vault is a room underneath a church where
people are buried, usually the members of a single family.
• Ex: He ordered Matilda’s body should be buried in the
family vault.

5. • 8. Lust - Lust is a feeling of strong sexual desire for
someone.
• Ex: His relationship with Angie was first which combined
lust with friendship.
• 9. Hue - color
• Ex: The same hue will look different in different light.
• 10. Dew - Dew is small drops of water that form on the
ground and the other surfaces outdoors during the light.
(The mistress’s skin)
• Ex: The dew gathered on the leaves.
• 11. Transpire - (of plants) give off (water vapor) from
the surface of leaves.
• 12. Pore - Pores are the tiny holes in humans’ skin.
• Ex: He was sweating at every pore.

6. • 13. Amorous (am’rous, line38) - readily showing
or feeling love; relating to love, especially sexual
love) (wild and passionate love)
• Ex: He became quite amorous at the office party.
• 14. Prey - animals or birds hunted and killed by
another for food
• Ex: The lion stalked its prey through the long grass.
• 15. Languish - be or become weak and miserable
because of unfulfilled longings
• Ex: He languishes for love.
• 16. Strife - violence of making love

7. Speaker :
An adorer of the mistress
Listener :
The mistress

8. Theme
• Carpe dien ＝seize the day and have fun.
• This is a seducing poem. The speaker shows
his strong passion for the mistress and tried
very hard to persuade her to make love to
him. Because time and time wait for no
man, he asks her to “seize the day and have
fun”, or she will regret when she is dead.

9. To His Coy Mistress
Mistress: A woman with whom a
“IF” we had enough space by man is in love
and time Andrew Marvell
HAD we but world enough, and time,
Coy: to be shy; This coyness, Lady, were no crime crime = problem or
reluctant to make We would sit down and think which way something regrettable
commitments To walk and pass our long love's day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges' side East (India)
Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide
West; The Humber is a Of Humber would complain. I would
river in England; his father Love you ten years before the Flood,Refers to the flood from the story of
drowned in this river. Noah’s Ark in the Bible/Genesis (the
And you should, if you please, refuse
beginning)
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow This conversion will never happen,
It will grow slowly (like a seed
growing into a vegetable)
Vaster than empires, and more slow; so he’s saying that she could keep
An hundred years should go to praise refusing his love until eternity
Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast, He’s explaining to her how much tim
he would spend admiring each part
But thirty thousand to the rest; her body .
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, Lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.

10. But at my back I always hear
Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity. Whereas the first stanza focuses on an
Thy beauty shall no more be found, ideal situation (“If we had all the time
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound in the world”), this stanza focuses on
reality (“we don’t have all the time in
My echoing song: then worms shall try
the world; life is short; we eventually
That long preserved virginity, die”).
And your quaint honor turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust: Marvell reinforces these ideas through
The grave’s a fine and private place, death imagery.
But none, I think, do there embrace.
The overall idea in this Now therefore, while the youthful hue
stanza is carpe diem (or
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
“seize the day”). He is
saying, “let’s get together And while thy willing soul transpires
while we’re still young!” At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may,
Notice how many times he And now, like amorous birds of prey,
employs the word now. Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapped power.
There are two similes in
Let us roll all our strength and all
this section. What are the
comparisons being made? Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strifeRather than running from the sun
Through the iron gates of life: (which is associated with time), they
Thus, though we cannot make our sun will make it run with their intense
Personification Stand still, yet we will make him run. love.

11. Structure I
• 1st. Stanza: The speaker told the
mistress how much he loved her.
• Ex:
• 1. I would love you ten years before the
Flood. ( P.739 Line7~8)
• → It is very early in the history
•

12. 2. An hundred years should go to
praise……Two hundred to adore each
breast: But thirty thousand to the
rest……(P.739 Line13~16)
→ The speaker uses the words, such as
“an hundred years,” “two hundred years,”
and “thirty thousand years” to describe
his deep and lasting love toward the
mistress.

13. 2nd. Stanza: The speaker threatens the
mistress if she does not seize the day to have
fun, she will regret when she dies because time
flies.
Ex:
1. Butat my back I always hear time’s
winged chariot hurrying near…(P.739
Line21~22)
→ Time waits for no men.

14. 2. Thy beauty shall no more be found, nor
in thy marble vault shall sound my
echoing songs; then worms shall try that
long preserved virginity, and your quaint
honor turn to dust……
(P.739 Line 25~29)
→ The speaker tells the mistress that she should
cherish time or once the mistress is dead, there
will be only worms to admire her virginity.

15. 3rd. Stanza: The speaker convinces the mistress
to make love to him.
Ex:
1. Now let us sport us while we may; and
now, like am’rous birds of prey. (P.740
Line37~38)
→ “Sport” is a verb here, which means “make love.”
The speaker convinces the mistress that she should
not repress her feeling and should make love to him.

16. 2. Let us roll all our strength, and all our
sweetness, up into one ball.
(P.740 Line 41~42)
→ “Ball” means “making love.” Let us make love
so that our soul and body will combine.

17. 3. ……Thorough the iron gates of
life…… (P.740 Line 44)
→ If we make love, we are not afraid of “death.”
Here, “iron gates” represents “death.”

18. 4. Thus,though we cannot make our sun
stand still, yet we will make him run.
(P.740 Line 45~46)
→This sentence has 2 meanings.
One is that our passion toward each other will
melt the sun.
The other is we can speed up the time, and do
something meaningful.

19. Structure II
• A. The poem is combined with “time” and “space”. We can
see that from:
• The first stanza:
• 1.Had we but world enough, and time
• ↘
• space
• 2.Thou by the Indian Ganges
• :
• Of Humber would complain. I would
• * River Ganges is in India, and Humber is in England. There
is a long distance between the speaker (Humber) and the
mistress (Indian Ganges), but the long distance doesn’t
affect his love toward the mistress.

20. The second stanza:
＊ But at my back I always hear
Times winged chariot hurrying near;
↘
Time
:
:
Deserts of vast eternity.
↘
Space

21. B.
1. Had we but world enough, and time………
The speaker imagined that they had enough world and time.
2. But at my back I always hear
Time’s winged chariot hurrying near………
The speaker said that in fact, life is not eternal.
3. Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
The speaker persuades the mistress to seize the time and
make love with him.

22. Irony
• Ⅰ. That long preserved virginity/ And
your quaint honor turn to dust
• → To keep her honor, the mistress sticks to her
principle to remain her virginity. But after she
dies, all she keeps turn out to be dust and
nothing meaningful is left. The speaker tries to
argue whether virginity is honorable to her.

23. Ⅱ. The grave’s fine and private place/
But none, I think, do there embrace
→ The speaker uses ironic tone to
threaten the mistress if she doesn’t
seize the day to have fun, she will
regret once she dies.

24. Ⅲ. Deserts of eternity/ And your quaint honor
turn dust/ And into ashes all my lust.
→ The speaker said the desert is eternal because it
isn’t affected by time. In the later lines, the speaker
compares quaint honor to dust, and lust to ashes.
Although dust and ashes are eternal, just like the
desert, these two things are meaningless. The speaker
said because humans are mortal, humans should seize
the time to do whatever they would like to do. The
speaker persuades the mistress to express the desire
and seize the day to enjoy life.

25. Allusion
• 1. I would love you before the
Flood……(P.739 Line 8)
• ◆“Flood” happened in the story of Noah
ark, which occurs in Genesis some time after
creation. It indicates he shall love her early in
history.

26. 2. And you should, if you please, refuse……
the conversion of Jews.
(P.739 Line 9,10)
◆ According to the Bible, “the
conversion of Jews” will come before
the end of the world, which is
judgment day. So this sentence means
that the speaker would love the
mistress shortly before the end of the
world.

27. 3. That long preserved virginity, and
your quaint honor turn to dust.
(P.739 Line 28-29)
◆“Quaint honor” represents what
the mistress is keeping now, which
is her long preserved virginity.

28. Imagery
• 1. Vegetable (P739 Line 11)
• ◆The symbolic meaning of “Vegetable
Love” is deep and unconsciously growing
love. The root of the vegetable is deep into
the soil and the vegetable grows slowly, just
like the speaker’s love toward the mistress in
an ideal state.

29. 2. But at my back I always hear Time’s
winged chariot hurrying near.
(P.739 Line 21-22)
◆Time flies. “Winged” and
“Chariot” represent something
passing quickly.

30. 3. Thy beauty shall no more……marble
vault shall sound my echoing song.
(P.739 Line 25-27)
◆It means when the mistress
“dies”, she won’t be able to enjoy
life anymore.

31. 4. Now let us sport us while we May
And now, like amorous birds of prey
(P.740 Line 37-38)
◆“Sport” means “making love”.
The speaker convinces the mistress
that they should make love
passionately and don’t repress
their desire for sex just like
“amorous birds of prey”.

32. 5. Tear our pleasure with rough strife
(P.740 Line 43)
◆”Strife” originally means “fight.”
But here, “strife” means “orgasm,”
which means “the moment when
you have the greatest sexual
pleasure during sex.”

33. 6. Iron gates of life
(P.740 Line 44)
◆ “Iron gates of life” means
“death.” When making love, they
are not afraid of death.

34. 7. We cannot make our sun Stand still, yet
we will make him run.(P.740 Line 45-46)
◆ In this sentence, using the word
“sun” is a kind pun. One is “Sun”
represents “heat” but it still can’t
affect our love, and even our passion
can melt the Sun. The other is that the
sun means “time,” and we have to
speed up the time.