To His Coy Mistress

To His Coy Mistress

                In Andrew Marvell’s poem, To His Coy Mistress, I’ll admit that I had a little trouble with what the writer was trying to convey. Since I couldn’t find a good answer to my questions, I Googled the meaning of the poem. Many of the analyses of the poem said that Marvell wrote was about a man who wanted to have sexual relations with this woman; however he would wait for her. Although the man talks about how his “Vegetable love should grow/Vaster than empires” (page 310). He then goes on about how life is short, and that death is forever. “Time’s winged chariot hurrying near;/And yonder all before us lie/Deserts of vast eternity” (page 310). Because the man is only thinking about his physical desires with this woman he thinks is beautiful, he is in the lust stage. I don’t see any indication that he is in the second or third stage of love because he doesn’t talk about how he longs to be with her and that if he were to part from her, he wouldn’t be able to live his life without his beloved woman at his side.

                In the third stanza, the man seems to be a little calmer when talking to the woman. I especially like the last couplet of the poem. “Thus, though we cannot make our sun/Stand still, yet we will make him run” (page 311). What I believe he is saying is that we cannot stop time. We need to act in the moment, “While the youthful hue/sits on thy skin like morning dew” (page311). He also believes that time is absorbing us up like a sponge. The years aren’t getting any younger, and neither are we. Overall, I believe that what Marvell’s message wasn’t necessarily about physical desires, like all the other analysts say about the poem. I think that he was saying that we need to do everything we’ve ever dreamed of because if we don’t do something, it’ll be harder to forgive yourself for not doing whatever you wanted to do. However we need to realize that time is not going to freeze for us. We can’t simply wait around for exciting things in life to happen. We must activate our own lives and live the best life we can. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” (Mark Twain).