Marvell’s poem, Coy Mistress, explores many poetic devices as essential elements in defining the central theme. Specifically, hyperbole and personification are used in conjunction to portray tonal shifts which are necessary in identifying the poem with the Latin phrase Carpe Diem.
Hyperbole attributes to the quixotic realm that the first stanza so vividly describes. The first stanza of the poem stands to proclaim the narrators love for the mistress through a description of how he would court her in the absence of time. Hyperbole serves to intensify the romantic value of the narrator’s message and establish an affectionate tone despite the falsity of the circumstance intimated in the first line. The narrator proclaims that he would spend an “age” to adore each part of the mistress “And the last age should show [her] heart.” This magnificent proclamation culminates the romantic setting depicted in the first stanza and sets up the introduction to the second stanza’s less pleasant concerns. Departing from the dreamland described in the first stanza, stanza two presents a new disposition. The poem’s introduction to reality in stanza two establishes an immediate and firm tone that is harsh and threatening. The narrator effectively and succinctly creates a tonal shift in the first line of the second stanza with a personification of time stating “But at my back I always hear- Time’s winged chariot hurrying near.” The introduction of time presents a mood of urgency which is to be carried out for the rest of the poem. This shift in tone from stanza one to stanza two is most prominently because it plays the largest role in identifying the poem with the theme of Carpe Diem. Furthermore, literary devices prove to be the backbone upon which the theme of Carpe Diem is established.
Good analysis of literary devices.
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