Reading Poetry and Chill?

Sir, I am not a bird of prey:

a Lady does not seize the day.

I trust that brief Time will unfold

our youth, before he makes us old.

How could we two write lines of rhyme

were we not fond of numbered Time

and grateful to the vast and sweet

trials his days will make us meet?

The Grave's not just the body's curse;

no skeleton can pen a verse!

So while this numbered World we see,

let's sweeten Time with poetry,

and Time, in turn, may sweeten Love

and give us time our love to prove.

You've praised my eyes, forehead, breast:

you've all our lives to praise the rest.

          Annie Finch writes her poem "Coy Mistress" as the incredibly sassy response of an empowered female to Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress". Finch's poem gives a voice to the mistress, who responds to Marvell's narrator confidently and humorously. While Marvell's poem argues to seize the moment by having sex, Finch argues to enjoy the time it takes to get somewhere. "Coy Mistress" is incredibly clever and Finch borrows images from Marvell's poem to turn his point around and enforce her own.

          Finch constructs this poem in rhyming couplets in iambic pentameter while frequently referencing Marvell's poem. This gives the poem an almost conversational feel. Her opening line where she reminds the man that she is "not a bird of prey" basically begins her whole argument debunking the dramatic narrative of Marvell's narrator. This is also fairly ironic since while she writes this, she is basically preying on his entire poem. Her tone is extremely powerful and she thoroughly manages to get her point across with her irony and turning his own arguments against him. She refers to him as "sir," which adds to the irony of her completely disagreeing with him and insulting him.

         Finch writes about how time is not a thing to be feared in this poem. She agrees that "brief time will unfold", but not so quickly that they are pressed to have sex immediately. She also argues that death does not just effect the body, but the real tragedy of death is that creativity is put to an end. The line "no skeleton can pen a verse!" makes this point clear. 

         The end of the poem is very clear. The mistress basically just wants to hang out and read poetry. Finch claims that poetry will "sweeten time" and give them time to prove their love. This is very different from Marvell's assertion that the couple should have sex in order to forget about their impending dooms. As romantic as that sounds, I think I like Annie Finch's idea better....

         The irony and borrowing of Andrew Marvell's own phrases adds to the power that the mistress has. She proves herself to be very clever and pretty much completely turn's Marvell's narrator's argument on its head.