To His Coy Mistress Flashcards
Analyse: had we but world enough, and time, this coyness, lady, we’re no crime.
The punctuation used ( commas ) delays our reading, slows us down to emphasise the prospect of eternity.
What are the themes of each stanza
Stanza 1. The imagination of life without limits ( immortality )
Stanza 2. Facing the reality of a limited life ( mortality)
Stanza 3. Panacea (solution) on how to live and love within a limited time on earth.
Analyse: we would sit down and think which way to walk and pass our loves long day.
Loves long day - is a metaphor for a life in one day
Walk and pass - direction - there would be time to contemplate the direction of their relationship
Analyse: thou by the Ganges’ side shouldst rubies find.
Ganges -places her in a exotic location or a spiritual exploration.
Rubies - suggest her to be precious like a gem.
Compare and analyse :
Line 5 about the Ganges to -
- I by the tide of Humber would complain
Humber - a river in the north east
Less exotic than the Ganges in India .
Possibly comparing himself to his exotic mistress
Suggesting that he is boring and his wife is very interesting
Complain, suggests that if they had eternity together they would still complain if they were apart.
Analyse: ‘I would love you ten years before the flood’.
‘Till the conversion of the Jews’
Flood, meaning the tread flood which is stated early in genesis 6 of the bible which suggests he will love her from this early point.
Conversion of the Jews, is stated in the book of revelations which is near the end of the bible and the world. Shows how long he would love her.
Analyse: my vegetable love should grow vaster than empires and more slow
suggestion - suggests hidden love as vegetable grow underground, deep and rooted. Opposite to a fruitful love which would be on show
Spreads globally like the British empire, slowly encompassing the world. Reference to the era of discovery.
Analyse: for lady you deserve this state
- State has many meanings e.g a countries government or for some one to get upset/excited
Or - Man thinks that woman deserves to be with him, deserves the reward of being with a man of his status.
Analyse: nor would I love at lower rate.
after ‘ you deserve this state ‘ phrase
Nor would I love at a lower rate is ironic as the man states earlier on that in total he would spend 30,300 hours looking at her face and body.
What is he saying ? - hundred years should go to praise your thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze ( face ). Two hundred years to adore each breasts but thirty thousand years to the rest.
100 years to the face
200 years to the breasts
30,000 years to the rest
Total = 30,300 years
More focus on sensual areas rather than pure . E.g. Face.
Is it real love ??
Analyse- Time winged chariot
- time is moving quickly
- closer to death
- based on Religious chariot that took holy people who were alive to heaven chosen by god
Analyse - ‘ and yonder all before us lie deserts of vast eternity.
- each humans life is like a single grain of sand in the desert.
- we are insignificant blips in a world that lasts forever
( comes to reality that they will die and the world will live on )
Analyse - ‘ the worms shall try that long preserved virginity ‘
- non romantic
- is he really trying to seduce this woman by saying something so grotesque
Analyse ‘ amorous birds of prey ‘
- amorous, feelings of sexual love
- birds of prey , companions for life
Analyse and compare
‘Morning dew’ to ‘instant fire’
Morning dew
- represents youthful innocence
However the instant fire
- represents her fiery and spontaneous desire
Man believes that desire will win over innocence.
