TO HIS COY MISTRESS

What expectation does the title create?

The title makes me understand that the sonnet would be a description of the woman. It would be written in an high register because the title has two ancient words: coy and mistress. This text would be dedicated to a writer's friend's woman and the writer is probably in love with her.

Analysis lines 1-14

The sonnet start with an if-clause. He is saying to the woman he loves that if they were everlasting her coyness wouldn't be a crime because they would have plenty of time and he could conquer her, but they are mortal so coyness for the author is something wrong. Then the poet says that if they had time they would sit down and waste time to think which way to walk and pass their day, he says also that day is long, in an ironical way because day last only 24 hours. He continues saying that she would go to the Gange to find rubies, so she wants to go far away to find something precious that in her land she can't find it, instead the poet wants to go to the Humber, a river in England, to complain because she is far away. The choice of the Gange for the lady and the Humber for the writer underline the differences between the two characters. She search something more than her normal life besides he always complains for her coyness and her distance. He highlights his love for her saying that he would love her ten years before the Flood this means that he has loved her before he was born. Finally he states that she will refuse till the conversion of the Jews, this means that she will never love him and he will complain forever.

In this part the sound ‘ai' is repeated many times in words like ‘time, crime, by, I, tide' and this sound evocates the poet's pain for his lover's coyness. There is an alliteration in the eighth line: long love.