Andrew Marvells To His Coy Mistress is in my opinion an excellent poem about a subject matter we can all understand and most of us can relate to: a love just beyond reach. This is the primary reason I believe it is most suited to be in a college textbook. One of the hardest things to accomplish in a poem written for uninterested college students is making it understandable and enjoyable by the audience, but this poem does it very well. In doing so, however, it also includes several important elements of poetic language that will educate the reader while at the same time keeping him or her interested.The initial paragraph lures the reader into believing that this is a happy lovers poem written to woo a woman with whom he is in love. The steady string of compliments mesh together very well and leave a warm and happy image of the pairs relationship. The imagery is wonderful as well, as in this example: My vegetable love should grow / Vaster than empires, and more slow (Marvell 11-2). This sentence inspires a mental picture of a sweeping kingdom and all the vastness that such an empire must occupy. He also writes this paradox in closing the paragraph: But thirty thousand to adore the rest. / An age to every part (Marvell 16-7). He is referring to how many years he will worship and adore his would-be lover. Clearly, one cannot live to such an age.The next paragraph grabs the attention of the reader with a firm dose of darkness. The summary of its meaning is of course that there are not enough years to wait for his lover to come around. And yonder all before us lie / Deserts of vast eternity (Marvell 23-4) is a great line depicting the inevitable deaths that await each and every man and woman. The metaphor of deserts and the use of the word eternity help to convey a sense of hopelessness. The change in mood from the first to the second paragraph is startling and vivid. Images of two lovers change to images of death, crows, and...
