To His Coy Mistress, english assignment help – Excelsior Writers | excelsiorwriters.com
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1.This is a discussion question assignment, you need read the poem and look at the questions below, try to write what do you think of the poem, and base on the poem itself, do not use any summary on internet, write your understanding of this poem, no more than 250 words.
Here is the link of the story.
LT2: “To His Coy Mistress”
This poem is arranged as an argument: If…but…therefore….For what is the speaker arguing? Who is his listener? What images stand out to you from this poem? How does it apply the “carpe diem” theme?
2. The second part is simple, i post the other student’s post below, you just need simply responds 2 student’s post, about 100-150 words to each post.
1.Brittany Jordan
I believe that in this poem the speaker is arguing directly to his mistress. He is arguing that they must have sex before death, which because the time never stops, will be not far behind where they are at the moment. He argues the things he would do to honor her, including to “love you ten years before the flood… for, lady, you deserve this state, Nor would I love at a lower rate.” (Lines 8, 19-20). In relation to “carpe diem”, or “seize the day”, the speaker is arguing that there is no time to waste. He argues what will happen to them both before long and that they should take opportunity. One example of the imagery that stands out to me is when the speaker says “My echoing song; then worms shall try, That long-preserved virginity, And your quaint honour turn to dust…” (Lines 27-29). With these lines, the speaker is basically arguing for his point to say that if she doesn’t have sex with him, it’ll be pointless because when she dies and is in her grave, worms will take her virginity regardless. This type of analogy and imagery is also used by Shakespeare in Hamlet. All of the imagery to prove that the mistress should just “do it” is to justify that they should just seize the day and do it, regardless of anything else because in the end, he basically tries to say it doesn’t matter.
2.Corinne Mangold
Hi Brittany,
I think our interpretations are very similar. I did not think the wording of this poem was to difficult to understand, Although, I have to admit, I did read it three times to decipher a few of the lines. Time was the major factor in this poem, as it seemed to be moving much faster than it should of. Did you feel this way too? Only reason I mention this is because towards the end of the poem, it mentioned their youthfulness, which I guess, slightly confused me. If they were young, death was a long way away, generally speaking. As I mentioned in my response, I wonder if the “dark talk” of death was meant to frighten his “Coy Mistress” and persuade her further, do you think this could be a possibility as well? I’m also curious to know, if she felt the same, did she have just as much passion? We will never know, but I do know the poem left me wanting to know more, :0)
3.Tabitha Walker
Hi Corinne,
I too had a similar interpretation of the poem. I believe that the speaker is trying to persuade his mistress into making love with him sooner than later. His passion for her is definitely not going to change, but he would like to show her how passionate his love for her is before time runs out. The same image of the worms going into his mistress casket stood out to me. I was extremely creeped out when I read that part but totally understood what the author was trying to portray. I too think “carpe diem” in this case means why wait? It seems that the speaker is trying to say why wait until it is too late, they should show their love for each other now before they both die. I am not totally sure that I interpreted everything correctly, but it seems that we had very similar interpretations so we must be on the right track!
4.Tabitha Walker
I think that the speaker of the poem “To His Coy Mistress” is a man. I believe that he is arguing about the time that he is going to have sex with his listener. It seems that he would like to have sex sooner than later. I believe that the listener is a woman that is his mistress. By definition on https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mistress, a mistress is “a woman other than his wife with whom a married man has a continuing sexual relationship.” So if my assumptions are right, the woman could be hesitant to have sex with the man because she doesn’t want his wife to find out.
The first time I read this poem, the first line stood out to me the most. On page 505, the line reads “Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime.” I thought that the speaker was talking about being in jail for committing a crime. After reading the rest of the poem and rereading it a few times, I realized that the speaker was talking about needing/ wanting to have sex before the both died. On page 506, the speaker takes his poem to a dark place when he says, “My echoing song; then worms shall try. That long preserved virginity.” In those lines, the speaker is basically saying that if the mistress doesn’t have sex with him then worms will be the ones to take her virginity. At the end of the poem, or the last stanza, the lines,”Now therefore, while the youthful hue”, the speaker changes from talking about death to talking about having sex while they are still alive. To me it seems as though the speaker is making an argument as to why they (man & mistress) should have sex while they are still alive, before they die.
In high school, I remember watching a film called “The Dead Poet Society”. This movie had a part that is clear as day in my mind. A character says, “Carpe diem, that’s seize the day”. In this poem, I believe that the speaker is trying to convince his mistress to have sex with him and not wait. In other words, his is saying “seize the day” (have sex with him), before it is too late. I believe he is trying to tell his mistress that life is too short to sit around and wait, so they should have sex now before they don’t have the chance.
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