A Formalist Reading of Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress”

A Formalist Reading of Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress”

Formalism is generally attentive to ‘literature on the page’, and studies the technique, procedure, construction and language—in short, form—in text; to show how aesthetic effects are produced by literary devices. Earlier Formalists took the position that what a work of literature is about—its content—is related to how it is put together—its form. That is, meaning is generated by the way ‘form’ shapes the ‘action’. So, they argue that the formal dimension in poetry, like rhyme, rhythmic pattern, arrangement of words, repetition of sound etc. should be the primary concern of literary study. Now, for a Formalist reading of Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress”, it is necessary to focus firstly on the form of the poem; e.g., the title, syllogistic pattern, style, diction, figuratives like hyperbole, metaphysical conceit, simile, metaphor, personification, imagery, wit, epigram, unified sensibility, time and space etc. Along with these devices, we have to notice how the poetic form develops the ‘carpe diem’ theme of the poem in which the speaker is trying logically to persuade his beloved to allow him a physical union.

To start with the aptness of the title, the poem is a direct address to its speaker’s mistress. And, the conuous third person possessive is noteworthy: to ‘his’, not ‘my’, coy mistress. This impersonality indicates that the writer’s address to his beloved can be an address to any woman of the world. Thus, the text has got a neutral condition and the ‘form’ has universalized the ‘content’. However, we cannot ignore another formal aspect that the body of the poem is written in the first and second person; yet in the title, he coolly acknowledges another audience.

Syllogism is a

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