To His Coy Mistress

Question 1

What is the overall ‘plot’ of the poem?

Answer 1

The notion of Carpe diem is celebrated as the speaker attempts to persuade his love interest to have sex with him

Question 2

When was the English civil war?

Answer 2

1642-1651 (restoration period)

Question 3

What is contextually significant about the urgency of the poem and the carpe diem approach?

Answer 3

England was on the brink of war= tensions high. Reminder of mans mortality

Question 4

What type of poet is Marvell? Who did he support in the civil war?

Answer 4

Metaphysical

Cromwell and the Parliamentarians (Roundheads)

Question 5

What is the significance of the references to geographical locations?

Answer 5

Era of exploration; Cartography

Meta= with; what is it to be in love and human through the process of the physical world

Question 6

What is associated with the metaphysical period?

Answer 6

Conceits- sought to shock the reader
Love poetry an excuse to showcase poetic craft rather than the awesome power of love
Poems written in the form of an argument
High minded/abstract ideas
Poets address is not overly polite
Challenges conventions of Elizabethan poetry
Mutual and physical love; stability compared to disruption at the time

Question 7

What is the significance of the theatrical opening lines in metaphysical poetry?

Answer 7

During the great age of drama

Question 8

What does Drummond and Dryden say about metaphysical poetry?

Answer 8

Drummond: reminded him of medieval scholastic philosophy; picky and using recondite images
Dryden: poets are quibbling like the medieval philosophers. Donne uses difficult ideas when we should be warming the heart; attracted to difficulty in a disruptive age. He perplexes the mind of the fair sex (perhaps not though; assumes they’ll understand the argument)

Question 9

Are metaphysical poets sexist?

Answer 9

Julie Sanders: no. The male voice is exposed; he is the one naked at the end and not the woman

Question 10

What is significant about colonisation ethics from the metaphysical period?

Answer 10

Women are land to be colonised by the speaker

Question 11

What was the 17th century attitude to sex?

Answer 11

Marriage and sex unrelated for men. Sexual desire satisfied outside marriage. Sexual love written about more freely. Sexual virility an important aspect of masculinity; men’s sexual promiscuity expected. Homosocial bond more important than bond between man and woman

Question 12

What was the 17th century attitude to love?

Answer 12

Not idealised/elevated; open to criticism. Satire and irony= love examined in a comical light (an excuse for the poet to show off wordplay and wit)
Began to explore physical love and desire as a part of life

Question 13

What was the 17th century attitude to women?

Answer 13

Women dependent on parents until marriage. Censured for breaking conventions. Enjoyed more sexual freedom but were judged

Question 14

Between the writing of the metaphysical poets and the English Restoration came what?

Answer 14

English Puritan government= return to self denying, oppressive morality of medieval society

Question 15

What was the 17th century attitude to marriage?

Answer 15

Advocated marriage for love. Augmented by the industrial revolution and growth of middle classes- young men able to select a spouse and pay for a wedding without parental approval
Divorce for the wealthy

Question 16

What did the restoration of Charles ‘I love the people and the people love me’ II bring?

Answer 16

Society ravaged against restrictive ideals; court of the king filled with mistresses. Little respect for sanctity of marriage

Question 17

What was the 17th century attitude to the individual?

Answer 17

Life about pursuit of happiness (enlightenment thinkers). The industrial revolution meant that people were no longer subject to the governance of the lord of the manor. People moved to cities and communities broke down. French Revolution focused on equal rights for all men

Question 18

What is the meter of the poem?

Answer 18

Iambic Tetrameter which allows the poem to flow

Question 19

What is the rhyme scheme of the poem?

Answer 19

A series of rhyming couplets which make the poem flow and build momentum

Question 20

What is the poem written in the form of?

Answer 20

Dramatic monologue

Question 21

What is Carol Rumens’ comment on the poem?

Answer 21

Marvell ‘reminds us that mortality is no joke’

Question 22

What is the structure of the poem?

Answer 22

Explains what he would do- conditional tense; assonance of ‘our long loves day’ (relaxed)

Back to reality in which life is fleeting- ‘But at my back…’

Resolution

Question 23

What effect does consistent enjambment have?

Answer 23

Adds to sense of urgency

Question 24

What effect does the exotic imagery have?

Answer 24

Highlights the expanse of space needed to show his appreciation

Question 25

What is the effect of the religious allusions?

Answer 25

‘The flood’ ‘the conversion of the Jews’ Events in the last and future= timelessness and eternity in which to play out the love affair. He is happy to court her for ages before sex, as emphasised through ‘vegetable love should grow’- long process of personal growth

Question 26

Where can bathos be seen?

Answer 26

‘Indian ganges’/‘Humber’ ‘Conversion of the Jews’/‘vegetable’ (phallic imagery) ‘Quaint (euphemism for vagina) Honour turn to dust’ (religious imagery of death)

Question 27

What is the significance of the disturbing worm imagery in relation to the addressee’s virginity?

Answer 27

Awareness of death and decay adds to urgency of the poem. Contrast between empires and vegetables, rubies and worms= expectations and reality. At death, her beauty will be neglected and they won’t be able to interact

Question 28

What is the significance of the sun and time being personified?

Answer 28

Exaggerated the threat they pose to the livers. Time a classical God in the description of its ‘winged chariot’

Question 29

What is the significance of hyperbole?

Answer 29

Exaggerated expanse of time available. Mocks blason and courtly love through ‘forehead gaze’ etc

Question 30

How does the poem admit blasphemy?

Answer 30

‘Deserts of vast eternity’ This is a negative image of the afterlife, challenging Christian ideas of it as paradise. For the speaker life is reduced so as to live in a mythical place. Instead we should seize the present as the afterlife ain’t paradise boys

Question 31

What image of the present is seen?

Answer 31

The suns ‘youthful glew’ on skin like ‘morning dew’-youth ‘Instant fires’- desire for life/sex ‘Let is sport while we may’- sex a part of enjoying life Repetition of ‘now’

Question 32

How does the speaker reassure his addressee of the power of Carpe diem?

Answer 32

‘Devour[ing]’ time like ‘birds of prey’- defeating time; stripping the flesh of life; you can only defeat time by living life to the full: tearing pleasures ‘through the iron gates of life’ Making the sun ‘run’- not adhering to time as deaths master

Question 33

Links to Gatsby?

Answer 33

- Gatsby and the speaker believe in the power of love to control time (‘can’t defeat the past? Why ... of course you can’) - Idealisation of love - Objectification of women - Men not being able to control/manipulate women’s relationship with love (flapper movement= sexual freedom) - Pressure: time in Marvells poem; reputation for Daisy - Dust imagery: bleakness of society

Question 34

What was the Interregnum?

Answer 34

The period between Charles I’s execution and the restoration of his son to the throne in England