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My students in World Literary Types and 17th- and 18th-century British literature courses also read this poem as a representative metaphysical lyric. Indeed, “To His Coy Mistress” teaches much about the elements of persuasion/argumentation, figures of speech, denotation/connotation, human love/sex, time, death, and immortality. The primary purpose of teaching Marvell’s poem is to help students understand how Marvell uses poetic language, what the male speaker’s thesis is, how he develops his argument, whether his persuasion is convincing, what his ideas are both intellectually and spiritually, and how committed Christians should respond to his claim. Despite the speaker’s obvious preoccupation with religious issues, however, it is not taught from the position of a Sunday school teacher. Rather than sermonizing the poem, I focus on its form, theme, and rhetorical strategy before we critique its content from a variety of critical perspectives. Indeed, one cannot integrate faith successfully into literary studies without first understanding the text and its context thoroughly; any faith-based approach to a literary work would be shaky and hollow if the approach were not accompanied by a rigorous analysis of the literary work at hand.
Typically, “To His Coy Mistress” is taught in a 55-minute setting. At the beginning of the class, I invite a student, preferably a male, to recite the poem. Then students are asked about their “gut reaction” to this work. Unfortunately, not many of them thoroughly understand this poem. They will notice that its male speaker, an erudite man, tries to persuade a reluctant mistress (a “sweetheart” in contemporary usage) to accept his proposal of physical love. Those who are unfamiliar with the conventions of seventeenth-century metaphysical poetry, however, may feel that the poem is merely “weird,” “strange,” or “sexist.” They recognize that there is something questionable about the male suitor’s use of flowery language in the first stanza. They also do not like the “bizarre” images in the second stanza “then worms shall try / That long-preserved virginity, / And your quaint honor turn to dust, / And into ashes all my lust....” The third stanza is generally less intelligible for students than the first two ones. Sensitive readers may detect the sarcastic, “tongue-in-cheek” tone of the speaker, but others do not comprehend the philosophical/religious dimension of his argument.
After devoting the first ten minutes to discussing students’ precritical responses, we move on to the major step of our discussion an application of various critical-interpretive approaches to “To His Coy Mistress.” Indeed, critical tools for analyzing this multilayered poem abound. Perhaps the most helpful, easy-to-use resource for teaching Marvell’s work is Wilfred L. Guerin, et al., A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature (4th ed., 1). This classical book of critical theory illustrates various approaches to the poem, including the historical-biographical, formalistic, genre, moral-philosophical, psychological, mythological/archetypal, feminist, and cultural studies. In class we discuss all of these interpretive techniques and their embedded critical assumptions. Additionally, two critical approaches�cross-cultural criticism and Christian criticism�are employed for an intercultural and faith-based critique of the poem, respectively. Overall, my pedagogy emphasizes multiple analytic perspectives; a close reading of the text; the biographical, historical, intellectual, and cultural context; multicultural and global perspectives; and a Christian/biblical critique of the text.
One of the most rewarding approaches to “To His Coy Mistress” is historical-biographical. Investigating the author’s life and times is an essential step toward a fuller understanding of the text; it is almost impossible to disconnect a literary work from its creator and his/her milieu. Any general encyclopedia or literature dictionary, not to mention books on Marvell himself, will offer ample background information. The author was an English metaphysical poet living in the seventeenth century. He was a Cambridge-educated intellectual well versed in classical, biblical, and romance traditions, hence a number of erudite allusions in the poem. At the same time, he was a Puritan who might not have endorsed a carnal conception of human love, hence the title “To His Coy Mistress,” not “To My Coy Mistress.” Marvell once served as assistant to John Milton (1608-74), author of the Christian epic Paradise Lost (1667) and Latin secretary in the foreign office. A member of Parliament from 165 until his death, Marvell ardently supported Oliver Cromwell and authored such famous political satires as The Last Instructions to a Painter (1667) and The Rehearsal Transpos’d (167-7). Historically, the seventeenth century, in which Marvell lived and wrote, is characterized by the ascendancy of the inductive method of reasoning and by the rising religious skepticism. The male suitor of “To His Coy Mistress,” who doubts the existence of afterlife, is clearly a product of his time.
While historical-biographical criticism regards “To His Coy Mistress” as a reflection of Marvell’s life and background, formalists focus on the form of the text. According to them, literature is distinguished from other forms of expression in its “unique aesthetic qualities”; literature has meaning(s) beyond the author’s “intent” and biography, and a discussion of literature’s qualities, themes, and functions necessitates “close reading” and an attention to its form, language, and detail (Hall 17-1). To formalists, historical-biographical information is secondary to the work’s “form,” which is defined as “a principle by which all subordinate patterns can be accommodated and accounted for” (Guerin, et al. 75). A formalistic approach is particularly helpful for analyzing poetry whose structure is more intricate, and whose diction more condensed, than other forms of literature.
Wilfred L. Guerin and co-authors model a formalistic reading of “To His Coy Mistress” in A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. We find a set of images, metaphors, symbols, and patterns in the poem which contribute to the overall form of the work. A motif that offers insights into “To His Coy Mistress” is that of space and time (“Had we but world enough, and time”); it shows that the poem is “a philosophical consideration of time, of eternity, of man’s pleasure (hedonism) and of salvation in an afterlife (traditional Christianity).” Other thematically important motifs include the sexual motif, which advances the carpe diem theme, and the motifs of wings and birds, roundness, and minerals and other things of earth (rubies, marble, iron, ashes, and dust) (-6).
The next methodology, the genre approach, is helpful in understanding the surface meaning of the poem. It attempts to ascertain what type of literature we are dealing with in the poem before we investigate its deeper meanings. Genre critics who analyze “To His Coy Mistress” will typically paraphrase the content of the poem to learn what the work says on its primary level. They will determine that Marvell’s work is a lyric poem in which the male speaker proposes sexual intercourse in the form of an argument in three distinct parts (1) If we had all the time in the world, I could have no objection to even an indefinite postponement of your acceptance of my suit. () But the fact is we do not have much time at all; and once this phase of existence (that is, life) is gone, all our chances for love are gone. () Therefore the only conclusion that can logically follow is that we should love one another now, while we are young and passionate, and thus seize what pleasures we can in a world where time is all too short (Guerin, et al. 8-). This proposition is clearly fallacious in its denial of the antecedent; the premises in the first two stanzas are true, but the conclusion is invalid. However, the lover’s suitor, a manipulative talker, does not mind his logical fallacy as long as it serves his selfish desire (Guerin, et al. ). 1
The moral-philosophical approach focuses on the moral teaching and/or philosophical thought the author attempts to convey to readers. The assumption behind this interpretive tool is that the primary purpose of literature is to teach its readers. Another assumption is that the author’s ideas clearly exist in the text and are universally accessible to careful readers. Proponents of moral-philosophical criticism include such classical literary theorists as Plato and Horatio, neo-classicist Samuel Johnson, and Victorian critic Matthew Arnold. Obviously, it would be impossible to fully understand such modern writers as Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus without some knowledge of existentialist philosophy. Likewise, it would be much easier to understand Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man with some familiarity with the Age of Reason (Guerin, et al. 5-6).
From the standpoint of moral-philosophical criticism, “To His Coy Mistress” represents the themes of carpe diem and of the loss of Christian faith. Carpe diem, a theme employed by some of Marvell’s contemporary poets as well (for example, Robert Herrick’s “To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time” and Edmund Waller’s “Go, Lovely Rose!”), is inevitably linked to a non-Christian view of sex sex is something to be dallied with. Interestingly, Marvell’s Puritan background cannot explain the speaker’s cavalier attitude toward sex (hence the limitation of historical-biographical criticism). Apparently, the speaker has been influenced by such empirical scientists/thinkers as Copernicus (147-154), who proved that the earth is not the center of the universe; Francis Bacon (1561-166), who advocated the method of inductive reasoning; and Thomas Hobbes (1588-167), whose philosophy of materialism contradicted the biblical view of humanity (Guerin, et al. -). Indeed, the speaker’s argument is somewhat akin to that of atheistic existentialism which regards inner or subjective experience as more important than “objective” truth. Atheistic existentialists also have faith in every person’s ability to choose for himself for his attitudes, purposes, values, and way of life (Stevenson 78). Marvell’s speaker, who apparently has been searching for the meaning of existence, has determined that life is transitory, that there is no afterlife, and that the only option left for him is to enjoy his life fully indulging in carnal pleasure.
Psychological critics apply psychoanalytic concepts, developed by Sigmund Freud, Ernest Jones, and other psychiatrists, to the analysis of a literary work. Key principles of psychological criticism include (1) Human activity is not reducible to conscious intent. () Individuals move through developmental stages early in life, and traumas or experiences during that process may have a lasting impact on personality. () The psychology of authors has an effect on literary and other forms of cultural representation (Hall 105-08). Psychological critics’ view of a literary work is “psychobiological”; they see a text as a projection of its author’s “unconscious fantasies” (Groden and Kreiswirth 55). They also tend to psychoanalyze the dream and locate sexual symbolism in a work of art. Although psychological criticism has been grossly abused by some of its users, it can still offer some insights into the psychic nature of literature. From the psychological standpoint, “To His Coy Mistress” is an erotic poem replete with sexual images. Sexually suggestive phrases and sentences in the poem�“marble vault,” “My echoing song,” “then worms shall try…my lust,” “instant fire,” and “amorous birds of prey”�are indeed “a sublimation of sensual statement” (Guerin, et al. 151-5).
“To His Coy Mistress” can also be examined from a mythological stance. Myth criticism is an approach based on such works as James Frazer’s The Golden Bough A Study in Magic and Religion, 180-15), Carl Gustav Jung’s The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (nd ed., 168), Maud Bodkin’s Archetypal Patterns in Poetry (14), and Northrop Frye’s Anatomy of Criticism (157). The key concept in this interpretive tool is “archetypes” (“prototypes” or “original patterns”), universal images and motifs/patterns present in the collective unconscious; these archetypes are embedded in dreams, myths, and literatures around the globe. Archetypal images include water, sun, colors, circle, serpent, numbers, the archetypal woman, the wise old man, the trickster, garden, tree, and desert. Creation, immortality, and hero archetypes are examples of archetypal motifs/patterns (Guerin, et al. 161-66).
Myth critics will find in “To His Coy Mistress” prototypes of time and immortality. Although Marvell’s poem addresses the issue of male-female love, on a deeper level it also concerns time and immortality, the two motifs commonly found in world myths. The poem presents three different kinds of time. In the first stanza, the speaker attempts to “escape from time” to an Edenic state where the shy mistress and he may play amorously forever; the use of the subjunctive mood (“Had we but world enough, and time”), however, indicates that such an idyllic state is non-existent. The second stanza employs the image of the desert. Here time is controlled by the laws of nature, the laws of mortality, decay, and physical annihilation. In the final stanza, the speaker escapes into cyclical time hoping to gain eternity through passionate love. The sun�of “soul” and “instant fires”�is a universal symbol of life and creative energy, which merges the circle/sphere (“Let us roll all our strength and all / Our sweetness up into one ball”), the archetype of primordial wholeness and unity (Guerin, et al. 175-76).
Meanwhile, feminist criticism is interested in exploring gender issues in a literary text. Three of the key principles of feminist literary analysis are (1) Language, institutions, and social power structures have favored men’s interests throughout much of history, which has had a profound impact on women’s ability to express themselves and the quality of their daily lives. () Yet, at the same time, women have resisted and subverted men’s oppression in various ways. () This combination of male oppression and women’s resistance to it is apparent in many literary and other cultural texts (Hall 0-04).
A feminist approach is certainly relevant in understanding the “To His Coy Mistress” because the poem is fundamentally about the relations between the sexes. The male suitor considers the mistress a sex object, not as a thinking human being. The mistress is not even named. She is completely silenced; she simply listens to a fatherly exhortation from the highly pedantic male speaker. On the other hand, as Wilfred L. Guerin, et al. note, the mistress’s “pent-up power” over the male is suggested by his adulation of her beauty, by her continued resistance to his advances, and by his verbal attacks on her, all of which mask his fear of the woman (16).
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