Wednesday, October 6, 2010
One Liner
"Had we but world enough, and time". The first line in Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress starts directly with this negative effect. This conditional telling the recipient of this letter to feel as if there were not even world or time. Although supposed to be a love letter, the speaker states this fake scenario where if this were possible. Even though such a scene is not possible due to the restrictions of time, from the first line the audience can infer that the speaker will describe some fantasy plot of what he would do for his mistress if eternity was a possibility.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
In his proposal to his coy mistress, the nameless male speaker addresses reality that her coyness could be understood if only time was eternal. Maybe for next time explore time's emphasis seen through diction, metaphor, and verb tense. As you point out, the first line does set a dubious tone. Could his seemingly negative tone reflect his urgency and lack of time? Just some food for thought, since I think your analysis above was quite solid, but could have used a few more arguable comments. Good job overall ;)
ReplyDeletenice debate.
ReplyDelete