Sieze The Day :: essays research papers

Sieze the DayAndrew Marvell wrote his short poem To His CoyMistress in a persuasive facial expression to allow the speaker toconvince his working girl, the listener, to succumb to his want. Marvell uses meter, imagery, and tone to persuade his ladyto further commit in their relationship. This poem has a rattling strong carpe diem or seize the daytime theme which Marvellconveys throughout the poem.In general, the meter of the poem is iambic tetrameter. Marvell uses pauses as well as enjambment to soften up theneat pattern that the rhyme scheme of the poem imposes. Thefirst two lines, for example, contain internal pauses thatbreak the tetrameter into shorter units Had we but worldenough, and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime. The one-third line contains no pauses and runs directly into thefourth, so that the rhyme runs opposite the rhythm of thecouplet. Near the end of the poem, the lines seem to becoming out faster than at the beginning, creating a sense ofurgency as the sp eaker talks. These last few lines atomic number 18 thelines in which the speaker talks about how the two shouldseize the day and brook behavior to the fullest. The use of imagery throughout the poem is also aneffective means of conveying his message to the lady. Hisreferences to the Great Flood and the conversion of the Jewsare both examples of biblical imagery. The timelessness ofthe Bible backs up his eternal love towards his lady. Thereferences of the tomb are perhaps the greatest images ofall, the images of death. Nothing depicts the urgency andshortness of life better than the expectation of death. Images implied in the last stanza are those of a raceagainst time. The goal is to correct to beat time, and althoughtime will eventually win, the runners must try to keep upwith time for as long as possible, and actually beat it forawhile with the moment of love. And because no way existsto beat time, Marvell suggests that they must live with lifethey have to the fullest.Marvells excellent use of tone also helps to prove hisargument with his mistress. In the first section, the poemtakes a loving, romantic tone We would sit down, andthink which way to walk, and pass our long loves day. Marvells romantic style of writing helps to prove hisallegation that he loves his mistress more than anything inthe world. The tone undergoes a drastic change in thesecond stanza, however I always hear times wingedchariot hurrying near.