Andrew Marvell's poem, "To His Coy Mistress," is one of many elements. Below, I will break down aspects of the poem.
I feel that the speaker of the poem is Marvell himself or possibly he is writing it as a man's perspective. The listener is either a mistress (a woman), as explicitly laid out in the title, or he is using mistress as a metaphor for life. I feel as though Marvell uses a lot of imagery throughout the poem. He uses a variety of metaphors to illustrate life, love and beauty. I feel that Marvell uses end-rhymes as heroic couplets. The ending word of each line rhymes with the one below it. If you look at all of the ending words, Marvell is creating comparisons between them. For example, line 39 and line 40 use devour and power. I feel that this was no accident on Marvell's part. He wanted the reader to draw a comparison between these two words. Maybe that power will devour? However, they may be as simple as line 11 and line 12 with slow and grow. It takes a long time to grow. I believe Marvell's poem is written in free verse, but I'm not positive. I don't feel as though it follows a strict set of guidelines as far as the form goes. Marvell also uses enjambment, meaning that the meaning of the sentence does not end with the line. He continues his thought onto the next line. I can honestly say that this is one of the challenges of reading poetry to me. I often find myself getting caught up in the rhyme scheme rather than actually reading through until the period or comma.
I believe that a main theme of Marvell's poem is life. I feel as though he is both preaching to the reader as well as warning the reader. The speaker says that one must seize the day, Carpe Diem. He speaks of "time's winged chariot hurrying near" (line 22) and warns that if you wait for too long, your life will flash by you before you realize it. This is how an example of why I feel as though he is both preaching and warning the reader at the same time. I also think that the mistress could be referring to life. I feel that this is a possibility because I feel as though Marvell may think many people have a mistress-type relationship with life. It is not something people fully commit to but they do occasionally have a miniature relationship with it. I feel that this may be really what Marvell is referring to when he says mistress because the major theme of the poem is to seize the day and not let it pass you by. He is telling the reader to have an out-in-the-open relationship with life. Do not be afraid but you can be cautious.
One thing that I really enjoyed in this poem is the fluidity of the words. Honestly, the first time I read it, i just glossed through a lot of the meaning because of the flow the words had. I felt as though it were a wave that just moved through the entire poem. However, after re-reading several times, I became less distracted by the fluid words and started focusing more on the meanings of the words themselves.
