“To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell

Looking into the lens of Psychoanalytic criticism.

I. Catchy Title: “My Love Letter”

II. Paragraph 1: Introduction (Use HATMAT)

A. Hook:
“Though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.” For me this is the best
part of the poem, and it clearly says what is CARPE DIEM is all about. It just tell that we cannot
preserve our youth or the things that we enjoy as of the moment, but we can travel in much more
faster time if we lavish the idea of enjoying the present and the youngness that we still have, if we
going to talk about the context of lovers in the poem. It tells that we cannot forever freeze the time
of now, but instead let’s forget time itself and see the beautiful things that life and love give us
today.

B. Author:
Andrew Marvell

C. Title:
To His Coy Mistress

D. Main characters:
The Narrator and his Mistress

E. A short summary:
“To His Coy Mistress” is part of the so called Carpe Diem literature. This advocates that while we
still have our time, especially during our youth, we must use it wisely and enjoy the energy and
passion. The poem is all about a suitor that try to persuade his mistress to be not coy and try to live
the life that they should be experiencing. The context of the poem talks about love, romantic
feelings and sexual desires. The suitor or the narrator line by line explains why coyness is a foolish
thing to do in their generations and give specific allusions as an example of why this behavior is
detrimental on their youth.

F. Thesis:
The Poem “To His Coy Mistress” can be seen during their days as somewhat a little bit liberal for
their generation, what this criticism would like to discussed is on how on the part of narrator and
writer thus the poem was intrinsically motivated on the terms of being a male, suitor, lover of the
woman in the poem. And this can only be achieved using the Psychoanalytic approach, who came
from Sigmund Freud. In this paper we will look closely on the narrator motivation as a fictional
literary character and as with the writer on the biographical instances that may affect him in writing
the poem, which is the best example of the carpe diem poem.
III. Paragraph 2: First Body Paragraph

A. Topic sentence (what this paragraph will discuss, how it will prove your thesis)
The use of allusion and the idea of if only the world and our mortal life is constant and forever
then the Suitor will forever her heart. The topic is how the narrator give the probability that if only
life is constant, it is okay to be a shy, timid and coy mistress. And in return as a suitor he will show
his love even with the thousands of years and all the historical times that have been said may be
just a passing time of his love. But it isn’t.

B. Context for the quote

The famous line of the poem is the first two lines which is “Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, Lady, were no crime” means that there is no wrong with being a coy woman, it’s
okay, it’s natural. And if only needed and he have all the time in the world, he will show how
deeply he love his mistress. Because as he says “For Lady you deserve this state; Nor would I love
at lower rate” the writer implying that the woman deserves all of this, and all what she asks for.
And if you will analyze the text closely, you will see that the proceeding lines after the second line
talk all about the allusion and other historical event such as the Conversion of Jews, Indian Ganges,
The Flood (Implying the Biblical flood).

1. Who says it? The Narrator

2. What’s happening in the text when they say it?

Looking at the quotation in general it just says that in an alternative world where everything
remains, or if only we are immortal, you deserved to be love and be court eternally, but that is not
the world where we live in, everything has expiration dates as everything, including us. The
coyness and timidity is a thing which is not a bad characteristics of a woman, but lady, the clock
is ticking.

C. Quote from the text (cited appropriately)

“Had we but world enough, and time,

This coyness, Lady, were no crime.
We would sit down and think which way
To walk, and pass our long Love's Day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges' side
Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood:
And you should if you please refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow.
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze.
Two hundred to adore each breast:
But thirty thousand to the rest.
 An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For Lady you deserve this state;
Nor would I love at lower rate.”

- To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell

D. Analysis of the quote: How does it prove your thesis?

If I will be basing this on the psychoanalytic level of Sigmund Freud, I can say that the instinct
that the suitor or the narrator using is the super-ego. Where it talks about an eternal love and how
she thinks how adorable and holy is the woman, where he put her in the pedestal of being a love
one. In here the suitor do not talk or suggest any of the worldly things that the following quotation
do. It just talks about the “If” of life and how he loves her with all his life.

E. Closing sentence (wrap up the paragraph to effectively transition to the next paragraph)
In a holistic point of view, what we can summarize in the first quotation is how the author prepared
or set up the following stanzas and lines which is the reason why he writes the poem in the first
place. Marvel is so good in this set up that he finds the catchy first 2 lines and with the proceeding
allusions and the count of how many years he will adore each body part and the woman as a whole.
For she deserves this.

IV. Paragraph 3: Second Body Paragraph

A. Topic sentence (what this paragraph will discuss, how it will prove your thesis)
On how the second quotation is all about the EGO of the writer and the act of trying to persuade
his mistress to lost her virginity because that is the best choice in this ticking life that we have. The
writer also talks about the mortal life that we have that in the end we will just turn into dust and be
eaten by worms, the other aspect of life that the narrator does tackle is the afterlife, the spirits after
we die, where what awaits us is vast eternity and nothingness. The line “The grave's a fine and
private place, but none, I think, do there embrace.” Says what it wants to say. That life is a normal
thing in life but in it, there is nothing but eternal emptiness.

B. Context for the quote

The context of the quote is it talk about the phase of life where there a lot of maiden and suitors
that in their prime, they might be a little bit or so picky in choosing their mates. So choosy that
most of them end up being single in their whole lives, or they marry that old age, where it is hard
to conceive and start a family. In our generation of today especially educated young adult they
try to focus on their career and individualism that they somehow neglect the idea of procreation
and starting a family of their own. This factor is so vital that it is.

1. Who says it? The Narrator

2. What’s happening in the text when they say it?

After the proposition in the first quotation it talks about the consequences of this world and mortal
life like “But at my back I always hear, Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near” signifying the
 inevitable death in life and the clock that never stops ticking, after this he proceeded with the two
possibilities after death, which was described in the topic sentence. It tells that honor, virginity are
all just things that is in the way to enjoy the thing that is more animalistic in a sense to him, which
is his lust.

C. Quote from the text (cited appropriately)

“But at my back I always hear

Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near:
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found;
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song: then worms shall try
That long preserved virginity:
And your quaint honour turns to dust;
And into ashes all my lust.
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.”

- To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell

F. Analysis of the quote: How does it prove your thesis?

In my analysis of the poem the suitor always present two opposite feelings of the woman and
himself, just like “Thy beauty shall no more be found; Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound My
echoing song” and “then worms shall try That long preserved virginity: And your quaint honour
turns to dust; And into ashes all my lust”. Observes how these opposite characteristics of the
female and the male all turn into nothing, making a strong argument to the woman to lose her
virginity. In the psychoanalysis of Freud, I think the author is in the EGO part of consciousness,
because it still making sense that they should do it because it still making sense and rational
decisions is required into making decisions.

E. Closing sentence (wrap up the paragraph to effectively transition to the next paragraph
The first and second quotation was been reason by two rationality of human conscious. The
SUPEREGO AND EGO, it was properly worded that at first it talks about coyness and timidity is
not a crime in this generation, while in the second quotation it tells about the consequences of the
characteristics of the things that was been discussed in the first quotation.

V. Paragraph 4: Third Body Paragraph

A. Topic sentence (what this paragraph will discuss, how it will prove your thesis)
How the following quotation is heavily influenced by the ID and the suitor become a little bit
suggestive and positively aggressive in convincing the woman to lose something which is
 important to her. Also, in this paragraph we will discuss about some of the images the author use
in order to create the image of sexual suggestions for the woman.

B. Context for the quote

The context of the quote is that the suitor is literally suggest in a worldly and physical intimacy
such as sex. This is the sole purpose of the poem itself in a literal level aside from the conventional
idea of happiness and merriment in the idea of being youth. If we will discuss this analogous
meaning of the text. We may agree on some part. But one that clearly will be the turning point of
the opinion we will have depend on the age of both that is related in the courting process, such
idea I think will be influence to people age 25 and above. While being a teenager will be somehow
inappropriate in the context that such pre-marital sex is considered a sin in the conservative society.

1. Who says it? The Narrator/The writer

2. What’s happening in the text when they say it?

As suggested above it is quite so suggestive in the tone of the author and very imagist especially
with the used of the word “amorous birds of prey” “let us roll our strength, and all our
sweetness up into one ball” “Thus, though we cannot make our sun, Stand still, yet we will make
him run.” These all sentence represents sexual desires and is driven by the ID, and in relation to
the preceding quotation, it does not talk about reason anymore but only glorified such romantic
and physical contact that can be taste fully when time was youth and energetically driven.

C. Quote from the text (cited appropriately)

“Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning glew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may;
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour,
Than languish in his slow chapt power.
Let us roll all our strength, and all
Our sweetness up into one ball:
And tear our pleasures with rough strife,
Thorough the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.”

- To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell

D. Analysis of the quote: How does it prove your thesis?

In the psychological approach we tend to analyze the motivation of the author and the character in
the text, and by examining the three quotation on how the level of the mind is connected in the
literary text or the poem. In the last quote, that is the best sample that in nature it tries to persuade
 the lady in having physical contact and sexual one, by having this suggestiveness, it will be mark
as a psychoanalytic approach in nature because it talks about man’s necessities and motivations.

E. Closing sentence (wrap up the paragraph to effectively transition to the next paragraph
In conclusion, the CARPE DIEM literature might be good to analyze but the psychoanalytic
approach because it talks about peoples’ happiness and their drive to have a good life. Such as we
have done, it is also interesting to see that the psychoanalytic approach can be combines by the
historical biographical story of the writer to better comprehend the intention of the writer in writing
the piece instead of only just looking about the character or people in the text.

To his Coy mistress talks about the liberty and freedom of man on how they can persuade mistress
to deject coyness in their part so that they can experience the chance that life gave them, as long
as that it last, because time flies so fast.

VI. Conclusion:

A. Summarize your argument.

Psychoanalytic approach in literature is not a typical approach that was been used in literary
criticism, because the nature involve to different disciplines, and this approach is quite hard
because you must first analyze the characters motivation upon what they are doing and saying, and
in looking the poem To His Coy mistress, it is widely seen that the different ideas and persuasion
of the author reflect different kind of personality of the mind does the author have.

B. Extend the argument.

With the three quotation in the poem, it is indicated there how the author seen coyness as a crime
in a marching and mortal life that we have, in a liberal sense, he is suggesting that women
nowadays just need to be a little bit loose of themselves because at the end, we will all just be dead,
and only worms will just get thy virginity, and the lust that boys have, will just go into dust, as
meaningless as it is.

C. Show why the text is important.

The text is important because it clearly defies the mindset of their generations at that time. That is
the time that the pseudo-conservative is rampant in the society that they forget to talk about a lot
of topic that needs a lot of discussion in a formal and straight to the point way. Andrew Marvell’s
novel clearly shows the carpe diem spirit of literature where they try to capture beauty and energy
in youthful hue where the young people have. They should conquer the odds and why they may,
they should pursue happiness.