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that the period of time from the “Flood” (l. 8) until “the conversion of the Jews” (l. 10) is extremely long. However, “To His Coy Mistress is an example of ironic allegory which implies the opposite of what it at first appears to argue.” 5 Therefore, all these images of neverending courtships must be converted into images of immediate consummation of the speaker’s physical, sexual desires.

One can find a metaphor of these sexual desires in the abstract and philosophical term “vegetable” (l. 11), known as such to the educated man of Marvell’s day.

Its context is the doctrine of the three souls: the rational, which in man subsumes the other two; the sensitive, which men and animals have in common and which is the principle of motion and perception; and, finally, the lowest of the three, the vegetable soul, which is the only one that plants possess and which is the principle of generation and corruption, of augmentation and decay. 6

Hence his love is compared to vegetables and plants whose first value is growth. It means that his love gets bigger and bigger illustrated by the image of an “empire” (l. 12). Referring to my thesis stated at the beginning, the speaker here “compares his sexual potency (‘My . . . . Love’ here implying the tumescent penis) to the absolute power of the final Kingdom over all other Empires.” 7 Again the speaker just thinks of the satisfaction of his own sexual lust. Looking at the next lines one can discover a climax from “hundred years”(l. 13) to “thirty thousand” (l. 16) which demonstrates the periods of time the speaker would “praise” (l. 13) and “adore” (l. 15) the parts of her female body. Marvell misuses the terms “praise” (l. 13) and “adore” (l. 15) which are predominantly religious terms. “The adoration of ‘each breast’ (l. 15) suggests an apt image of a statuesque Madonna and a kneeling adorer” 8 but “the enumeration of the lady’s charms reads like a parody of Canticles.” 9 Again, Marvell uses irony as a stylistic device to express something completely different from what he says. If one knows that the whore’s name was written upon her forehead in order to identify her the whole religious and puritan situation of adoration changes its meaning. Everyone knows what whores do. Sex. Hence the speaker sits in front of the lady stares at her breasts and dreams of physical satisfaction.

5 Bruce King, Marvell’s allegorical poetry (Cambridge/New York: Oleander Press, 1977) p. 67. 6 J.V. Cunningham, “Logic and Lyric”: ‘To his Coy Mistress’. Marvell: Modern Judgements. Ed. Michael Wilding (London: Macmillan, 1969) p. 159.

7 Stocker 215.

8 Michael Craze, The life and lyrics of Andrew Marvell (London: Macmillan, 1979) p. 316. 9 King 68.

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In contrast to section one Marvell illustrates in section two (l. 21- l. 32) the real world. He stresses that the time the speaker and the Mistress live in is an empirical time following Francis Bacon’s philosophy. The memento mori theme is obvious and death is near. There is a sudden speed-up of time. Hence “the lovers do not have time to waste on protracted courtship rituals.” 10 The logic of the lover’s argument is the logic of carpe diem: seize the day. It was a

well-worn logic in the Renaissance, as it has been since the time of Horace.

Using images such as “time’s winged chariot” (l. 22), a classical allusion to the threatening Phoebus Apollo, which represents death or the sun measuring time, the speaker’s purpose is to frighten the Mistress with death. Another image of death used to evoke fear of the Mistress is the one of “deserts of vast eternity” (l. 24), which are characterized as “dry, barren Saharas of sand; the very opposite of the fertilising waters of the Ganges and the familiar tide of the Humber, which for Marvell spelt home.” 11 This means that the afterlife of

the Mistress shall be empty, dreary and infertile if they do not have sex in the current Age. The speaker imagines the body of the Mistress after death. It will be lost and “beauty shall no more be found” (l. 25). The repetition of the term “shall” (l. 25/ 26/ 27) lets the Mistress shudder because it expresses the certainty of a ghastly afterlife.

In addition, the image of “worms trying her long preserved virginity” (l. 27/ 28) is the most horrific and grotesque imagery of the poem. It means that the “worms” (l. 27) which stand for a phallus will penetrate into the “long preserved virginity” (l. 28) which symbolizes the vagina of the Mistress. The speaker uses this terrible image to shock his lady out of her coyness in order to have sex with him instead of having sexual intercourse with worms. As grotesque this image is there is another traditional meaning of it: “Indeed, worms devouring a woman’s sexual organs is a traditional representation of luxuria or lust.” 12 Hence the speaker

takes advantage of the Mistress’ fear. Evidently, the man treats the woman as an object or property. This is one of the strongest indications of the speaker’s interest in sex only, with no spirituality attached.

The next image takes one to another ambigious expression which is “quaint honor” (l. 29). But it is half as fastidious as it at first appears to be. Some Renaissance authors used queynte to denote the female pudendum. Thus, “ quaint honor (l. 29) and lust (l. 30) are used 10 Dennis Davison, The poetry of Andrew Marvell (London: Edward Arnold Publishers, 1964) p. 26. 11 Craze 318.

12 King 70.

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by the speaker as puns on the female and male sexual organs.” 13 Using a religious allusion

this image gets a grotesque touch if one remembers the commital words of the Burial Service: “We commit their bodies to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” 14 As both

the “quaint honor and the lust turn to dust/ into ashes” (l. 29/30) the speaker’s physical desires could not be satisfied in current life. Again the speaker just thinks of his own sexual pleasure. One stays at the macabre imagery of the burial when the “grave” (l. 31) is characterized as a “fine and private place” (l. 31).

Consider ‘a fine and private place’ next. In such words a contemporary of Marvell’s might have enthused over what we call ‘a stately home’: an ancestral ‘place’ in the country or on the edge of a town; a ‘fine’ house, surrounded by ‘fine’ gardens and a ‘fine’ park; altogether as ‘private’ a place as any aristocratic couple could want for living and love-making. ‘But no couples, I think, make love in the grave’. 15

The “grave “ (l. 31) cannot be compared to such a “fine and private place” (l. 31) described above. It is not fine but dark. It is not private but ghastly.The speaker uses quite a strange image of sex again because “embrace” (l. 32) here alludes to sexual intercourse. But everybody knows that sexual intercourse of carcasses is impossible. So, Marvell uses a conceit which expresses such immense power and fear. It is another macabre imagination which shall force the Mistress to have sex with him before death.

That is what the speaker’s intention is.

In section three (l. 33- 46) Marvell completes his strong logical pattern: “Had we . . . “, “But . . .”, “Now therefore . . .” (l. 1/ 21/ 33) and comes to an conclusion. The first word of section three: “Now” (l. 33) which is repeated two other times in this section (l. 37/ l. 38) emphasizes the main idea of this section. It is the famous carpe diem: seize the day theme of the seventeenth century. After the speaker has been successful in persuading the Coy Mistress into having sex with him he wants her here and “now” (l. 33/ 37/ 38). The speaker encourages the Mistress and himself to be active, to consummate love immediately and to challenge time. “The controlling idea of the final paragraph is to bring love- as- activism to its crisis in apocalyptic consummation, thereby making Time itself the agent of love’s fulfilment rather 13 King 70.

14 Craze 319.

15 Craze 319.