To His Coy Mistress Flashcards Preview

A/SHHS 12B English Literature > To His Coy Mistress > Flashcards

Flashcards in To His Coy Mistress Deck (34)
Loading flashcards...
1
Q

What is the overall ‘plot’ of the poem?

A

The notion of Carpe diem is celebrated as the speaker attempts to persuade his love interest to have sex with him

2
Q

When was the English civil war?

A

1642-1651 (restoration period)

3
Q

What is contextually significant about the urgency of the poem and the carpe diem approach?

A

England was on the brink of war= tensions high. Reminder of mans mortality

4
Q

What type of poet is Marvell? Who did he support in the civil war?

A

Metaphysical

Cromwell and the Parliamentarians (Roundheads)

5
Q

What is the significance of the references to geographical locations?

A

Era of exploration; Cartography

Meta= with; what is it to be in love and human through the process of the physical world

6
Q

What is associated with the metaphysical period?

A

Conceits- sought to shock the reader
Love poetry an excuse to showcase poetic craft rather than the awesome power of love
Poems written in the form of an argument
High minded/abstract ideas
Poets address is not overly polite
Challenges conventions of Elizabethan poetry
Mutual and physical love; stability compared to disruption at the time

7
Q

What is the significance of the theatrical opening lines in metaphysical poetry?

A

During the great age of drama

8
Q

What does Drummond and Dryden say about metaphysical poetry?

A

Drummond: reminded him of medieval scholastic philosophy; picky and using recondite images
Dryden: poets are quibbling like the medieval philosophers. Donne uses difficult ideas when we should be warming the heart; attracted to difficulty in a disruptive age. He perplexes the mind of the fair sex (perhaps not though; assumes they’ll understand the argument)

9
Q

Are metaphysical poets sexist?

A

Julie Sanders: no. The male voice is exposed; he is the one naked at the end and not the woman

10
Q

What is significant about colonisation ethics from the metaphysical period?

A

Women are land to be colonised by the speaker

11
Q

What was the 17th century attitude to sex?

A

Marriage and sex unrelated for men. Sexual desire satisfied outside marriage. Sexual love written about more freely. Sexual virility an important aspect of masculinity; men’s sexual promiscuity expected. Homosocial bond more important than bond between man and woman

12
Q

What was the 17th century attitude to love?

A

Not idealised/elevated; open to criticism. Satire and irony= love examined in a comical light (an excuse for the poet to show off wordplay and wit)
Began to explore physical love and desire as a part of life

13
Q

What was the 17th century attitude to women?

A

Women dependent on parents until marriage. Censured for breaking conventions. Enjoyed more sexual freedom but were judged

14
Q

Between the writing of the metaphysical poets and the English Restoration came what?

A

English Puritan government= return to self denying, oppressive morality of medieval society

15
Q

What was the 17th century attitude to marriage?

A

Advocated marriage for love. Augmented by the industrial revolution and growth of middle classes- young men able to select a spouse and pay for a wedding without parental approval
Divorce for the wealthy

16
Q

What did the restoration of Charles ‘I love the people and the people love me’ II bring?

A

Society ravaged against restrictive ideals; court of the king filled with mistresses. Little respect for sanctity of marriage

17
Q

What was the 17th century attitude to the individual?

A

Life about pursuit of happiness (enlightenment thinkers). The industrial revolution meant that people were no longer subject to the governance of the lord of the manor. People moved to cities and communities broke down. French Revolution focused on equal rights for all men

18
Q

What is the meter of the poem?

A

Iambic Tetrameter which allows the poem to flow

19
Q

What is the rhyme scheme of the poem?

A

A series of rhyming couplets which make the poem flow and build momentum

20
Q

What is the poem written in the form of?

A

Dramatic monologue

21
Q

What is Carol Rumens’ comment on the poem?

A

Marvell ‘reminds us that mortality is no joke’

22
Q

What is the structure of the poem?

A

Explains what he would do- conditional tense; assonance of ‘our long loves day’ (relaxed)

Back to reality in which life is fleeting- ‘But at my back…’

Resolution

23
Q

What effect does consistent enjambment have?

A

Adds to sense of urgency

24
Q

What effect does the exotic imagery have?

A

Highlights the expanse of space needed to show his appreciation

25
Q

What is the effect of the religious allusions?

A

‘The flood’ ‘the conversion of the Jews’
Events in the last and future= timelessness and eternity in which to play out the love affair. He is happy to court her for ages before sex, as emphasised through ‘vegetable love should grow’- long process of personal growth

26
Q

Where can bathos be seen?

A

‘Indian ganges’/‘Humber’
‘Conversion of the Jews’/‘vegetable’ (phallic imagery)
‘Quaint (euphemism for vagina) Honour turn to dust’ (religious imagery of death)

27
Q

What is the significance of the disturbing worm imagery in relation to the addressee’s virginity?

A

Awareness of death and decay adds to urgency of the poem. Contrast between empires and vegetables, rubies and worms= expectations and reality. At death, her beauty will be neglected and they won’t be able to interact

28
Q

What is the significance of the sun and time being personified?

A

Exaggerated the threat they pose to the livers. Time a classical God in the description of its ‘winged chariot’

29
Q

What is the significance of hyperbole?

A

Exaggerated expanse of time available. Mocks blason and courtly love through ‘forehead gaze’ etc

30
Q

How does the poem admit blasphemy?

A

‘Deserts of vast eternity’
This is a negative image of the afterlife, challenging Christian ideas of it as paradise. For the speaker life is reduced so as to live in a mythical place. Instead we should seize the present as the afterlife ain’t paradise boys

31
Q

What image of the present is seen?

A

The suns ‘youthful glew’ on skin like ‘morning dew’-youth
‘Instant fires’- desire for life/sex
‘Let is sport while we may’- sex a part of enjoying life
Repetition of ‘now’

32
Q

How does the speaker reassure his addressee of the power of Carpe diem?

A

‘Devour[ing]’ time like ‘birds of prey’- defeating time; stripping the flesh of life; you can only defeat time by living life to the full: tearing pleasures ‘through the iron gates of life’
Making the sun ‘run’- not adhering to time as deaths master

33
Q

Links to Gatsby?

A
  • Gatsby and the speaker believe in the power of love to control time (‘can’t defeat the past? Why … of course you can’)
  • Idealisation of love
  • Objectification of women
  • Men not being able to control/manipulate women’s relationship with love (flapper movement= sexual freedom)
  • Pressure: time in Marvells poem; reputation for Daisy
  • Dust imagery: bleakness of society
34
Q

What was the Interregnum?

A

The period between Charles I’s execution and the restoration of his son to the throne in England