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An analysis of andrew marvell's poem 'to his coy mistress.' the poem, written in the seventeenth century, challenges societal norms of the time by urging the speaker and his mistress to make the most of their fleeting lives and enjoy the transient pleasures it offers. The poem's themes, persona, context, form and structure, language and imagery, and tone.
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Content The speaker attempts to seduce his mistress using the argument that life is fleeting and that they have no time for a long courtship. Theme Love, lust, passion, persuasion, mortality, passage of time. Persona The poem is written from the first-person perspective, as evidenced by the use of the collective pronoun ‘we’ in the opening line, and uses direct address to speak directly to the woman the speaker is trying to seduce, as seen in the line ‘This coyness, lady, were no crime’. Context The poem was written in the seventeenth century, when there were strict rules governing contact between courting couples and women were expected to guard their virginity and fend off the advances of their suitors. Marvell challenges the Puritanical ideas of his time, which taught the importance of denying earthly pleasures in order to prepare for the afterlife, by arguing the need to make the most of life and enjoy the transient pleasures it has to offer. Form & Structure