Visual Imagery in to His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell

During the 17th century, women were seen as an object rather than a human being and men had many desires for women. For example, women were expected to keep her dignity, wait for courtship, and marry a suitable suitor before succumbing to the flesh’s pleasures. In the poem “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell, the author portrays the male of the seventeenth century’s impatience and anger, ready to convince his lady to take advantage of her youthful beauty. The speaker utilizes visual imagery to convey his tone and intention by using point of view in an attempt to demonstrate his love and in a voice that is as urgent as it is both compelling and sensual, to lure his mistress to carnal delights.

Marvell portrays his poem by convincing his love towards his lady through the use of visual imagery. It states “And your quaint honour turn to dust, and into ashes all my lust”. This evidence indicates that Marvell is referring to his lady’s honour turning to dust and then into ashes. This contributes to the poem by showing the love he has towards his lady and that they should be together because they won’t be young forever and should take advantage of it while they can and that should show their love for one another, because one day, it may be too late. It also states “Now therefore, while the youthful hue sits on thy skin like morning dew and while thy willing soul transpires at every pore with instant fires”. This evidence conveys that the lady soul breathes out in ‘instant flames’ of enthusiasm and passion for love through her beautiful skin. The author now wants his mistress to give in to her desire as she can still respond before time takes her toll. Marvell declares his core argument for his lover that she must decide to have sex with him and to make use of the time together wisely.

In conclusion, Marvell tries to make himself seem reasonable by saying that he is going to wait for his woman, but ultimately he just looks at her as an object and wants her to live up to his lustful desires and have sex with him. The woman’s concern for her appearance, her vanity, is the device that the author is attempting to use to threaten her with the passage of time. His first flattery of her beauty is abstract, without any description.He expresses this through the use of visual imagery to express his tone and purpose in an attempt to demonstrate his desire and love to his lady. 

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