Andrew Marvell’s 1681 poem “To His Coy Mistress” follows the argument of the speaker as he attempts to convince his mistress to engage in a physical relationship with him. The poem starts off in a romantic and leisurely mode, painting a picture of walks by the river and patient caresses. It transitions into grim territory, with the speaker insisting that worms and ashes are all that await the lovers in death. He concludes that they must pursue pleasure while they are still young in order to make the most of their limited time together. The shifts in imagery from stanza to stanza enhance the speaker’s argument, highlighting first his love for her, then the fate that awaits them in death, and finally how they can fight back against the passage of time.

Skills: analysis, drawing inferences from text, close reading, identifying the relationship between words

About This Document

The Owl Eyes Imagery activity gives students an opportunity to practice identifying and analyzing imagery. Imagery within a text creates a sensory experience that can connect readers to a text’s setting, atmosphere, or overall aesthetic. Studying imagery will help students understand how narrators or principal characters feel. The main components of this worksheet include the following:

• A brief introduction to the text
• A handout on types of imagery with examples from classic texts
• A step-by-step guide to activity procedure
• Selected examples of imagery from the text

In completing this worksheet, students will learn to identify and analyze different kinds of imagery in order to develop close reading skills and identify the effect imagery has on their reading experience.