To His Coy Mistress Mini-Essay: Make Love, Not War

In Marvell's To His Coy Mistress, the narrator implicitly criticizes the standards of sexually-repressed society through an urgently decisive tone. Specifically, through a three paragraph structure, the narrator provides time in order to lure his mistress with pastoral and reassuring writing; however, the narrator does so in order to reenforce his true feelings with the (later) more urgent, demanding paragraphs. In addition, despite his unbound love, the narrator demonstrates his sense of urgency through harsh, less colloquial, shorter-phrased language , full of harsh and plosive diction. By doing so, the narrator reveals his anxious desire to seize the moment or Carpe Diem. Essentially, the narrator believes in the importance of both physical and emotional investment in a relationship and, although he truly loves his mistress, believes in investing in sexual desire rather than rejecting it. Marvell, through the narrator, illustrates the importance of an individualistic sense of self-reliance and self-respect by succumbing to one's own fantasies, desires, and dreams rather than suppressing one's own honest passion. Therefore, the narrator's provocative diction in the last paragraph characterizes the truth of individual creation and opinion. Marvell believes natural thought, rather than conformity, exemplifies true beauty.