Andrew Marvell, To his Coy Mistress

Paul Bembridge (University of Exeter)

Ed. by J A Roe, University of York
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.04: English Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century, 1625-1688.
Vol. editors: Jennifer Brady (Rhodes College), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Neil Forsyth (Université de Lausanne), Claire Preston (Queen Mary, University of London), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1640 - 1678

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poem

Resources

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One of the most anthologised poems in the English Language, Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” was first printed in Marvell’s posthumous collection,

Miscellaneous Poems

(1681), but may have circulated in manuscript before that date. The poem contains 23 tetrameter couplets, which are set out as a formal argument, a syllogism employing ten couplets and six couplets for its two premises and seven for its conclusion, forming a tripartite structure acknowledged by the three verse paragraphs of the 1681 layout

(

Miscellaneous Poems

, p. 19).

Pressing its “coy mistress” to “sport us while we may” (where “coy” means shy or modest, and possibly aloof), the poem is written in the carpe diem tradition associated with the Latin poet Horace (65-8 BC), whose most famous ode urges

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1475 words

Citation: Bembridge, Paul. "To his Coy Mistress". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 August 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35896, accessed 07 May 2024.]

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