"To His Coy Mistress" "To His Importunate Mistress"
By: Andrew Marvell By: Peter De Vries
As a satire, "To His Importunate Mistress" makes fun of and ridicules aspects of Andrew Marvell's writing and attempt to change the gender expectations. Marvell's poem, one of romance and love for a "coy" and shy mistress, is ridiculed and transformed into a poem about an "importunate" and int eruptive woman. In such a change, the two poems create drastically different meanings, but flow from a similar idea.
"This coyness, lady were no crime (Line 2)." The phrase by Andrew Marvell is used to reassure his mistress of his endless love for her even in her shyness and uncertainty. This phrase, however, is converted into completely different version with new meaning when a few words are changed by Peter De Vries in his satire. For, he states, "My coyness, lady, were a crime (Line 2)." While Marvell used the line to illustrate and establish the idea of endless love, De Vries uses it to suggest that distractions keep him from this love. Continuing within the satire, Marvell uses analogies of biblical and religious aspects as well as a garden and empire to illustrate his undying love. Yet, De Vries describes analogies such as marble and suite as love only to please himself.
It is by these contrasts that the satire of De Vries is used to criticize the perfect love expressed in Marvel's poem. Through both poems, a connection to gender issues is made. While poem of De Vries satires Marvell's poem of explaining how men can take advantage of women, Marvell's poem stands strong against the ridicule to illustrate how men can be loyal and loving of their wives. Just as light contrasts with darkness, so does De Vries's poem as it satirizes Marvell's.
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