To His Coy Mistress: Themes, Meter, and Symbols

Now that you have the modern day translation and summary of the poem, here are some important concepts that you should know:

Themes

• Time

• The speaker of the poem thinks that time is against both him and his lady love. He desires to control time through sex, using it to make the day speed up or slow down. This generates a sort of carpe diem (“seize the day”) feel to the poem.

• Sex
  
  
  • As time is the antagonist in Marvell's poem, sex is the tool the speaker needs to gain control over his nemesis. However, getting sex whenever you want it is no easy task.
    
    
    
    
• Mortality

• The issue of death comes up in the poem, once again adding a sense of urgency to the atmosphere. It is clear that the speaker fears that time is moving too quickly, thus bringing forth old age and, eventually, death.

Form and Meter

• The poem's meter is iambic tetrameter.

• Iambic refers to the fact that, in each line of the poem, the syllables follow the patten of: unstressed followed by stressed.

• For example, in the following first line of the poem, notice that, when speaking the words aloud, there is an emphasis on the second syllable (noted by the bold):

“Had webut world enough, and time/”

• Each pair of unstressed and then stressed syllables is considered an iamb. Each pair of syllables is also called a “foot.”
• Since there are four pairs of iambs or four feet, we give it the numeric name “tetra.”
• Therefore, the form is “Iambic” and the meter is “tetrameter.” So we say that the poem is written in Iambic Tetrameter.
  
  

   
  

  Rhyme

  
  

  • Each of the three stanzas are comprised of couplets: aa, bb, cc...

Symbols, Imagery, and Word Play

• “Thou by the Indian Ganges' side/ Shouldst rubies find...”

• Here, rubies is a symbol for feminine chastity or virginity. It was widely believe that rubies preserved a woman's honor.
  
  
  
  
• “And the last age should show your heart/”
  
  
  • Here, the heart symbolizes love but also refers to the vagina.
    
    

• “Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound/'

• Since it is assumed that the lady is question is Caucasian, therefore her “marble vault” again refers to her vagina.
  
  
  
  
• “And your quaint honour turn to dust/”

• It is commonly held that “quaint” is play on the word “cunt”—a vulgar word used to describe the female sex organ.
  
  

• “And now, like amorous birds of prey/”

• Sensing that he is coming off as quite desperate, the speaker softens his ardor by placing the ideas of ravenous, carnivorous animals—like hawks, for example—and passionate love side by side. 
  
  

  • He does this to illustrate the point that having raw, passionate sex is a natural event—as it is found in the animal kingdom—and nothing to be ashamed of.