Sunday, June 19, 2011

Can someone point out one specific use of understatement in "To His Coy Mistress" and explain exactly what is being minimized?

In Marvell's poem, "To His Coy Mistress," excess used in
the imagery present makes it very hard to find
understatment.


The author's continued use of
hyperbole—extremes, exaggeration— leaves one feeling (as perhaps does the object of his
desire) overwhelmed.


In stating that he would, if time
allowed, love and adore her for thousands of years indicates the lengths to which he
would go in order to give her the attention she deserves. The speaker's purpose with
this exaggeration, of course, is to get this woman to come over to his way of
thinking.


If there were a line I needed to identify using
understatement in this poem, it would be, "The grave's a fine and private place, / But
none I think do there embrace."


In the midst of all the
excess the speaker describes, the reference to death seems
anticlimactic.


The speaker goes to great lengths to
persuade this woman to give in to his advances and sleep with him, but when he speaks of
he grave, he describes it as a "fine and private place," as one might describe a lovely
room where the lovers might meet. He lamely continues, "But none I think do there
embrace." This is also weak: as if he were saying, "I don't think they're having much
fun in the grave."


Death is the end, the consummate
conclusion to life. Should this not be the most powerful, the ultimate, exquisitely
persuasive argument to use? If she says no, their lives will move forward with plenty of
chances to love again; perhaps just not for them.  With death,
there are no second chances: no one returns. One would think that when presenting  this
part of the argument, his word choice would be much stronger, especially as he seems to
become more passionate as the poem moves forward.

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