One of the best Metaphysical poets is Andrew Marvel in English Literature and his best creation is the Carpe-diem poem To his Coy Mistress that was written in the 17th century. It is praised as a love poem by his metaphysical wits, fragrance of love and fine balance of lyrical verse but his most celebrated poem To his Coy Mistress is a spiritual love or physical love poem? That is the question and so time for justification.
Hyperbole:
As a lover, hyperbole is an essential part of love exaggeration, it comes close to the relationship between lover and beloved. The lover praised the beauty of his beloved's eyes and physical beauty in the line
" Hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast"
And the love says if time had enough,no problem to spend the time to travel east and west when describing as hyperbolic manner-
"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."
Zealous:
Lovers always want his love only for him, nobody touch, nobody comments on his beloved but it is the only power of the lover. It is called zealous '' in the poem `` My Last Duchess by Robert Browning. The poem is not that kind of zealously but zealous about what happens when his Coy beloved dies without any physical relation that time insects would destroy her body. Lover says"
Thy beauty shall no more be found;
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try".
Time:
Time is of no value for lovers to make love but in the poem, the lover became impatient and passionately requested his beloved that Time seized every enjoyment. The beloved's beauty slowly but steadily goes to death but the lover does not create the pleasure of love because his beloved is Coy. In the Poem The Sun Rising by John Donne, the lover is satisfied with his beloved but in the poem To his Coy Mistress, the lover is not able to create such a kind of love. The lover feels how fastly time passes without making love.
" But at my back I always hear
Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity."
Sacrifice:
It is the best part to make love perfect but in here sacrifice reached another level. The lover does not want his beloved's virginity to be destroyed by worms when she dies but it is better to sacrifice her virginity before the lover. The lover also says her virginity will be transformed into dust and when she takes a rest in the grave, that time it will not be possible to make love. So, before death,that is an ultimate opportunity to succeed in their love.
"That long-preserved virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust;
The grave’s a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do they embrace."
Negativity:
True lovers do not make any negative creativity in the name of love but in the poem, the lover reaches the highest peak of passion and invites his beloved to physical intercourse. In the way to enter into the another world in where time could not disturbe them :
" Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife"
Spirituality:
It is the ultimate boundary of timeless happiness. At the end of the poem, the lover understood, sex is not all the the part to revive his love but it is a mutual understanding both of them. He also admit that time not wait for anyone -
" Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run".
Conclusion:
The poet gave a heart feeling desire of a lover through a spiritual and physical love point of view. It is obviously a love poem but certain vulgar images destroy the spirituality of love. It is less than spiritual love in the metaphysical point of view but more than physical love poem in the sense of lover's desire in this poem.
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