"Coy Mistress" written by Annie Finch serves as a direct response to Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" which was composed almost two centuries later. It is easy to notice that the time this poem was written in an era more liberal compared to Marvell's piece. In the very first word "Sir", Finch directly addresses Marvell and clarifies that the 'Mistress' is not some bird of prey as Marvell asserted in his poem. She does not crudely seize the day by faltering into promiscuity.
Similar to Marvell, Finch too personifies time by capitalizing it and addressing it as 'he'. However, in contrast to Marvell, Finch opines to adopt time as a friend. She says that time will improve and fine tune their youthful quality, say perhaps like a fine aged wine. She poses a question, a rhetorical question perhaps, stating that it is pertinent to understand and comprehend the nature of life before contemplating and expressing love. She says that life is full of ups and downs and these are an essential part of life, its virtue. Hence, the limitation of time is what gives life its meaning.
Finch does not mince words for instance using metaphors as she says that 'The Grave' is not the only curse of our mortal body as there are worse ailments. She points that a person who is hollow cannot create something meaningful. And since the time is limited, why not engage ourselves with something deeper and meaningful. Further she says that patience and time might deepen and sweeten their love and not merely stating of love but to actually prove it to each other. She finally concludes that since you have praised her physical attributes, the time is ripe to explore something deeper and complex meaning getting to know each other's mind, character and soul.
Finch titled her poem as "Coy Mistress" to directly relate to Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" but she perhaps means 'coy' as an irony as the speaker in line 2 declares that she is a "Lady". She uses assertive and authoritative tone to declare that the lady has standards and do not just go around giving up their bodies to anyone which is expressed through a metaphor "seize the day". Similarly she uses metaphors such as "lines of rhyme" meaning deeper expression of feelings, "skeleton" meaning a superficial and vain person, "pen a verse" meaning understand and appreciate the complexities of love and "numbered world" referring to limited and fixed time in this world.
Finch does not merely personify time but uses it as her greatest ally. This is easily proven by her use of repetition of 'time'. Besides, her use of alliteration in "and Time in turn, may sweeten love" further exemplifies her use of time to her advantage. She also uses assonance in few instances, firstly to make a snide retort to the man in "no skeleton can pen a verse" meaning that the shallow man is not fit for understanding true nature of love. Similarly, "You've praised my eyes, forehead, breast" comments on the shallow trick of flattery made by the speaker in Marvell's poem.
The form of the poem is simple as it consists of eight rhyming couplets. The rhyme scheme is similar to "To His Coy Mistress" as it uses end rhymes and all of them are perfect rhymes. The rhyme scheme can be observed as AABBCCDDEEFFGGHH. Similarly, the iambic tetrameter where iamb denotes the foot which consist of an unstressed-stressed syllable pattern repeating four times per line. However, the very first line does not adhere to this pattern, as a spondaic foot is sounded in first few words. Likewise, Finch deploys few enjambments to keep the reader on hook and in anticipation which help in elaborating her important opinions. There is frequent use of caesura, mainly highlight important points and stress certain words and feelings. This also facilitates to make those words assertive and commanding. All these elements and techniques work seamlessly to serve as a fitting retort to Marvell's overtly sensual poem.
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