His Coy Mistress Allusions

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“To His Coy Mistress” Essay
Every person has a limited amount of time to live on earth, and therefore they should experience new things and make the most of their time with their loved ones. For instance, Andrew Marvell’s poem “To His Coy Mistress” presents a scene where a man is in a relationship with a coyness mistress to whom wants to assimilate her virginity. Andrew Marvell incorporates literary devices in his poem to highlight the overall meaning of a lifetime.
Firstly, diction is the use of certain words or phrases used to convey a writer’s train of thought. Marvell uses the words “time, youthful, love, heart, vast eternity, pleasures, sweetness, adore, and virginity”, to focus on the idea that life is too short to hold back on love. To add, Marvell further explains his idea by the following phrase in lines 8 through 10, which state “Love you ten years before the Flood… Till the conversion of …show more content…

To begin, allusion is the reference to a person or object that is significantly known. Marvell uses allusions to demonstrate how the man’s love in this poem is described as everlasting. For example, in line 5 it states “Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side”, which alludes to a large river in Asia, that seems endless. This river’s long length is compared to the man’s endless love for the mistress. Moreover, alliteration is the repetition of similar sounds in the beginning of words in a sentence to represent or focus on a significant point or idea of a line in a poem. An example of this is in line 14, which states “Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze”. This line of the poem repeats the I and ze sound. This is used to highlight the point that the man’s eyes in this poem are locked on to the mistress’s face. All in all, Marvell uses allusions and alliteration to get to his point of the poem which is to inform as if the man carries this love for his mistress that goes on