Desire and Sensuality in Marvell’s Coy Mistress
Andrew Marvell’s poem “To His Coy Mistress” contains themes of love, lust, courtship, and sensuality. These themes are expressed through the manipulation of figurative language, specifically the use of the objective correlative. Throughout the poem, Marvell uses numerous instances of suggestive images that convey an emotion or idea that is not identical to the stated object or symbol of the text. Marvell’s execution of the objective correlative allows the speaker of “To His coy Mistress” to express sentiments of sensuous desire and the rejection of social convention through a call to action that is never directly stated but implied through symbolic allusions and a logical argumentative structure found throughout the poem.
The first portion of Marvell’s poem establishes the convention of dating and courtship that would have been the custom of Marvell’s time. The convention of courtly culture would have dictated that the woman was to essentially be gazed upon from afar by the man that desired her, leading to a lengthy courtship, eventual marriage, and finally consummation. The speaker of the poem rejects this convention through the conceit that time and the fleeting condition of the human experience are too grand a determiner of the quality of one’s life, therefore the courtly convention should be negated by indulging one’s sensuous inclinations.
This sentiment of indulging in sensual pleasure is first established through the line, “Had we but world enough, and time,/This coyness, Lady, were no crime”( 1,2). The line establishes that the speaker understands that there is a conventional design to be followed, and that any sexual expectation must be “coyly” concealed. The speaker goes on to express that given “a hundred years” he would continue “to praise” and “gaze” upon “ every part” of the woman , never breaking the convention of physical distance and sexual repression of courtly culture (13, 14, 17). However the speaker goes on to reveal that although the idea of dedicating vast amounts of time to the object of one’s affection is a romantic notion, it is not a practical one and it ,making it illogical to wait for what may never come rather than act and make it happen.
The second portion of Marvell’s work conveys the inevitability of facing one’s mortality and serves to suggest that inaction and repression of one’s desires is a great tragedy in the scheme of existence. The speaker states that “ at my back I always hear/ Time’s wing chariot hurrying near,” creating a personified image of time that suggests mortality is constantly chasing or approaching the speaker and the mistress (21,22). The speaker goes on to suggest that if they continue the convention of concealing their sensuous desires in a “marble vault,” the “long preserved virginity” of the mistress will only be experienced by “ worms” ( 27,28). The speaker concludes this premise with the ironic claim that “The graves a fine and private place,/ But none, I think, do there embrace” (31,32). The construction of the second portion of Marvell’s poem uses numerous instances of the objective correlative to convey a sense of urgency and creates a call to action. The images of preserved purity being experienced in terms of death and decomposition suggest the futility of repression while serving to further compel the mistress of the work to give in to inhibition.
The final portion of the work insinuates that the speaker and mistress adhere to temptation and desire while they are young and “willing” like “amorous birds of prey” (35,38). This portion starkly contrasts with the second portion in that although time and death is still approaching, it is the act of pleasure and sensuality that allows the two lovers to transcend the fear of mortality. While the second portion expresses the absence of love and sensuality in death, the third portion highlights the beauty of passion despite the always impeding presence of mortality. The speaker asks his mistress to combine their “ strength, and sweetness” into one “ball of pleasure,” enabling the two to experience a satisfaction that may not make time “ stand still” but instead “run” with all the joy and satisfaction that comes with sensual indulgence (39,40). Ultimately the third part of the poem functions to resolve the speakers conceit which was stated in the first portion. Essentially the speaker is saying that courtly culture is romantic, if you have all the time in the world, but since they do not, they must experience all that they can with the little time they have together.
Another aesthetical aspect that it is important to interpreting the poem is identifying the logical structure that the poet adheres to. The poem is laid out as a logical argument to the mistress, enabling the structure to induce “heightened feelings” and “indicates a subtle critique of certain modes of feeling”(Roll-Hansen). Each conceit of the poem essentially leads “to an impossibility of fact or formal absurdity” that is rhetorically valid (Reiff). The questions asked to the mistress are purposefully bold and distasteful in order to invoke a passionate and sensuous response to the speaker’s desires.
Adam Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” is an excellent example of how the objective correlative functions in a poetic work. Marvell uses figurative language and objective symbols to insinuate the speakers sexual desires with out ever directly stating it in the work. Marvell is able to cleverly disguise the intent of the speaker by manipulating the image of time in order to elevate the notion of satisfaction through pleasure sensuality, and logic.
Works Cited
Reiff, Raychel. “Marvell’s to His Coy Mistress”. Explicator. 60.4. (2002).196-198.
Ebscohost Web.
Roll-Hansen, Diderik. “ Logic and Illogic in Marvel’s To His Coy Mistress”. English Studies.71.3. (1990) 224. Ebscohost. Web
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