The Restoration

Andre Marvell

To His Coy Mistress

by: Douha Almansour

Maram Aljehani

The Restoration Period

*The English Restoration began in 1660 with the restoration of the Stuart Monarch Charles II to the English throne.

*This period is referred to as a new age because it was totally opposite of the rule of Cromwell, who shut down theatres and anything that was considered immoral.

*In the Restoration Period, there is no place to feelings and imagination. For the Restoration Period people, it was best to live a calm, civilized life, governed by reason.

The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century (1660-1785)

*Many scholars think of it as properly three discrete literary eras: the Restoration (1660-1700), dominated by Dryden; the Age of Satire (1700-1745), dominated by Swift and Pope; and the Age of Johnson (1745-1790), dominated not only by Johnson but by a new kind of poetry and a major new literary form, the novel.

Themes of the Restoration Period

*Themes in Restoration Period are polite society, politics, town themes and intellectual topics of men who talk in clubs and coffee houses.

*In the era of the Restoration, Dryden’s occasional verse, comedy, blank verse tragedy, heroic play, ode, satire, translation, and critical essay.

Andrew Marvell

*Andrew Marvell, an English poet, politician, and

satirist, probably wrote "To His Coy Mistress" between

1650 and 1652 .

*It was first published in 1681 (by his housekeeper!)

several years after his death. Since then, it has become

one of the most famous poems of its kind.

*Marvell belongs to a group commonly known as the "Metaphysical Poets." The group includes some other poets : George Herbert, John Donne, and Richard Crashaw – all from the 1500s and 1600s. Their poems are famous for the surprising (and, at times, shocking and daring) use of language to explore BIG questions about love, sex, the earth, the universe, and the divine.

*The Metaphysical Poets celebrated imagination and wit. Wit often involves a lot of wordplay. Like "To His Coy Mistress," their poems often take the form of an argument or a line of reasoning (similar to what a lawyer might use in court).Such arguments are often parodies of actual arguments.

* The Metaphysical Poets also would frequently use their work to critique aspects of society,

politics, and art that they see as flawed .

The Title

*The author added the title, using the third-person possessive pronoun "his" to refer to the young man. *The word "coy" tells the reader that the lady is no easy catch; the word "mistress" can mean lady, manager, caretaker, courtesan, sweetheart, and lover. It can also serve as the female equivalent of master.

* In "To His Coy Mistress," the word appears to be a synonym for lady or sweetheart. In reality, of course, Marvell wrote the entire poem.

The Persona (The Young Man) :

*Although Andrew Marvell writes "To His Coy Mistress" in first-person point of view, he presents the poem as the plea of

another man (fictional, of course) .*The poet enters the mind of the man and reports his thoughts

as they manifest themselves. The young man is impatient, desperately so, unwilling to tolerate temporizing on the part of the young lady.

*His motivation appears to be carnal desire rather than true love; passion rules him. Consequently, one may describe him as immature and selfish.

*The speaker in Andrew Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress'; is a man who is addressing a silent listener, who happens to be his mistress.

*In this dramatic monologue the speaker tries to explain his feelings to his mistress .

*The speaker uses many allusions to empires and other objects, events and ideas that are not directly related to his feelings, in order to explain how he feels. He uses these allusions to exaggerate his feelings in order to clearly show them.

•After reading over the poem once, you get a sense of what the speaker is feeling .

•*Upon further analysis of the poem you realize that the allusions used in the poem, are in fact, what makes this poem so interesting.

The Poem and explain it :

•To His Coy Mistress•By Andrew Marvell•Written in 1651-1652 and Published in 1681 •Had we but world enough, and time,•This coyness,1Lady, were no crime.•We would sit down and think which way•To walk2 and pass our long love's day.•Thou by the Indian Ganges'3side.......................5•Shouldst rubies4find: I by the tide•Of Humber5would complain. I would•Love you ten years before the Flood,•And you should, if you please, refuse•Till the conversion of the Jews.6........................10

•My vegetable love7should 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,.....................15

•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,8•Nor would I love at lower rate..............................20

*The first twenty lines of the poem start to talk about how much this girl means to this particular man .

*The main character in the poem talks about how he will wait forever to be with her. He mentions that “We would sit down and think which way To walk and pass our long love’s day.” (st. 3-4) His views as of now are that he wants to take his time and he doesn’t have to go anywhere.

This man certainly wants to plan things out so that it will be perfect .*Another line from the poem that makes him the gentleman that he is

portraying to be is “An hundred years should go to praise thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze. “(st.13-14) The speaker is saying that we will give praise to her eyes that are so magnificent. Her eyes are so beautiful, because of which he will praise them for hundred years

before they can truly be together .*Later, he mentions that he will praise her breast each for two

hundred years. The mood is set that this man certainly wants to be with this woman. He is telling her how he feels and wants her to understand that he really wants to be with her.

But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot9hurrying near;

•And yonder all before us lie•Deserts of vast eternity.

•Thy beauty shall no more be found,.....................25•Nor, in thy marble vault,10shall sound•My echoing song: then worms11shall try

•That long preserved virginity,•And your quaint12honour turn to dust,

•And into ashes all my lust:.................................30•The grave's a fine and private place

*In the next twelve lines we begin to see a bit of difference in the attitude. As of now the guy is thinking, well maybe we don’t have enough time to sit around and wait. The chariot’s of time is pointed out by saying that it is hurrying near. Maybe we don’t have enough time anymore. We should hurry

up and get with it .“*Thy beauty shall no more be found, Nor, in thy marble vault shall

sound.”(st. 25-26) The speaker is telling her that if they waited too long then she shall be dead and then they would have never gotten the chance. He is

trying to tell her that they should hurry it up . *Later in the poem he talks about how his lust turns into ashes. The reason

is that if she passes away then he would have never gotten the chance of getting her into bed. The man tries to show and explain to her why it isn’t the best idea to die as a virgin. He wants to help that out.

•Now therefore, while the youthful hue•Sits on thy skin like morning dew,13

•And while thy willing soul transpires14..................35•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-chapt15power................40

•Let us roll all our strength and all•Our sweetness up into one ball,

•And tear our pleasures with rough strife•Thorough16the iron gates of life:

•Thus, though we cannot make our sun...................45•Stand still, yet we will make him run

*The last fourteen lines try to show how passionate it will be. There is no reason why they should wait if it is going to be that intense. “Now let us sport us while we may, And now, like amorous birds of prey. “(st. 33-34) The man who began telling this woman that he will wait forever, even until the end of time just to be with her, then went to persuading her to hurry things up a bit because they don’t have all the time in the world.

*Now he wants to show her how extreme it will be. “Let us roll all our

strength and all Our sweetness up into one ball”(st. 41-42). There he describes what it would be like. He thinks that the best thing that could happen is that they can get into bed. As of now that is all he seems to care about.

*The poem have three sections : *first from lines 1-20, they discuss what would happen if the young man and

young woman had unlimited time. *Second from lines 21-32, they point out that they do not have unlimited

time. *Finally from lines 33-46, they urge the young woman to seize the day and submit.

The Theme*Time is a main theme in the poems “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew

Marvell. In “To His Coy Mistress,” the speaker values time and believes that he and his lover should take advantage of every moment, using every passing second for their benefit. He pleas to his “coy mistress” to stop delaying her expression of relationship and join in the love that he openly shows to her.

*This poem deals also with the theme of Horace which is Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero – "Seize the Day, putting as little trust as possible in the future", and the ode says that the future is unforeseen, and that instead one should scale back one's hopes to a brief future, and

drink one's wine  .*In conclusion, the speaker in “To His Coy Mistress” made the better use

of time. He attempted to value every moment and live life to its fullest.

Figurative Language

*Startling comparisons or contrasts of a metaphysical (spiritual, transcendent, abstract) quality to a concrete (physical, tangible, sensible) object. In "To His Coy Mistress," for example, Marvell compares love to a vegetable (line 11) in a waggish metaphor.

*Mockery of idealized romantic poetry through crude or shocking imagery, as in lines 27 and 28 ("then worms shall try / That long preserved virginity").

*Gross exaggeration ;overstatement (hyperbole), as in line 15 ("two hundred [years] to adore each breast").

*Presentation of a logical argument, or syllogism. In "To His Coy Mistress," this argument may be outlined as follows: (1) We could spend decades or even centuries in courtship if time stood still and we remained young. (2) But time passes swiftly and relentlessly. (3) Therefore, we must enjoy the pleasure of each other now, without further argument. The conclusion of the

argument begins at Line 33 with "Now therefore."

Thank you for listening

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