To His Coy Mistress
To His Coy Mistress
by Andrew Marvell

To His Coy Mistress Themes

Little Words, Big Ideas

Time

The speaker of Andrew Marvell’s poem, "To His Coy Mistress," thinks that time is a super-villain out to get him. He wants to flip the script and control time. It’s not surprising that M...

Sex

If time is the super-villain of Andrew Marvell’s "To His Coy Mistress," then having sex is the super-power he needs to gain control over his enemy. But, sex isn’t so easy to come by. Po...

Mortality

Mortality, otherwise known as "death," gets a whole stanza in Andrew Marvell’s classic from the 1650s. The speaker presents his vision of the afterlife. While beautiful in terms of the that w...

Freedom and Confinement

Andrew Marvell’s "To His Coy Mistress" is constantly on the move between images of freedom and images of imprisonment. As we read why the speaker feels trapped, and how he thinks he can get o...