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Simile in "To His Coy Mistress"
There are two similes in the poem,
and the most striking thing about them is that they both
occur in the final section, in rapid succession. This
is the speaker’s most desperate hour, and he is trying
to introduce his ideas in quick bursts that are full of
imagery in order to make them easily understood. At the
same time, he uses the second simile to introduce an aggressive,
passionate image that had been buried until this point.
- lines 33-34 - "the youthful hue / Sits on the
skin like morning dew"
This simile is meant to make the situation crystal clear
to the listener; it almost encapsulates the speaker’s
argument. The simile is a fairly standard comparison of
the listener to nature: The morning dew, like the speaker’s
youth, is ephemeral.
- line 38 - "like amorous birds of prey"
This simile reveals the speaker’s desperation and
his rising passion, or barely contained lust. “Birds
of prey” are generally not considered “amorous,”
just the opposite. Here the speaker is trying to introduce
a bold, aggressive image into the mind of his mistress
in order to stir her passions.
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