Andrew Marvell's " To His Coy Mistress" is an example of a Carpe diem poem-which is Latin for "seize the day." Throughout the poem the author shows how his creative mind is put to use. Marvell uses time in attempt for the speaker to manipulate his coy mistress. Marvell takes advantage of metaphors and other poetic techniques to support his speaker's persuasive arguments throughout the poem. .
In the first section of the poem, the speaker gives his mistress a feeling of unconditional love, he does this by attempting to convince his lady how much he would love her if he had all the time in the world. He explains to his mistress that if time allowed, he would spend hundreds of years just to admire her physical being. He is doing this so that he can flatter her in order to seduce her. .
The poet begins with a very slow and monotomous pace using many commas, as the speaker declares " had we but world enough and time, this coyness, lady, were no crime." He does this to support the idea that he would dedicate all his life to loving her if he could because he is attempting to persuade her in to his bed through flattery. .
The speaker uses references and images from the bible, to support his argument. The speaker declares " I would love you ten years before the flood: and you should, if you please, refuse, till the conversion of the Jews. Here the speaker is exaggerating his love for her to flatter her in to bed, he does this using history from a 17th centaury perspective. It was believed that the conversion of the Jews to Christianity would occur just before the end of the world. Within these few lines the speaker approaches the argument in a different way "if you please," this would give his mistress a feeling of power using reversed physicology.
The speaker continues with his argument and states that his "vegetable love should grow vaster than empires and more slow." In this context the speaker uses the term "vegetable" as a metaphor for his love.