To his Coy Mistress

The title makes the reader understand that the sonnet is adressed to a woman. The adjective “coy” gives us some informations about mistress’s personality; she is coy and shy. The possessive pronoun “his” highlights that the writer wants to own this lady.I think that the principal aim of the sonnet is to conquest the coy mistress. The choice of word mistress , however, makes the reader understand that the men’s hearth is  totally cought by her.

The poet starts the sonnet using an if-clause that is an ipotetical structure referred to an irreal situation. From line 1 to line 5 the speaker talks about time and space. The men is aware that they haven’t so much time an space for their love, so he considers coyness a crime because it disregards the mortal nature of human being. The word “world” is the container of our life , time and space. We are not everlasting. At line 3-4-5-6-7-8-9  there are some alliteration ; one of the sound w ( we would sit down and think which way to walk) and one of the sound I ( thou by the indian ganges side shouldst rubies find I by the tide of humber would complain..) that recalls the suffering , the sadness. Line 7 starts with an arcaic use of the personal pronoun you (thou) and there is an exotic atmosphere as a matter of the fact the poet quotes the river Gange where the mistress can look for rubies ( something precious). In these lines “you” comes before “I” ; that highlights that the poet takes the mistress in high exteem and he loves her. The writer compares the river Gange with the Humer; she is very far away from him.At line 10 the author express his love,  and he says that he would love her ten years before the Flood. We can notice that the semantic field of words is religion as a matter of the fact there are some words like tide, Flood, conversion, Jews.