Symbols are important in poetry and help hint at the meaning of the stanzas they are in and the poem as a whole. For example, in Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” unique symbols are used in the three stanzas that help allude to the emotions and promises of the speaker. In the first stanza symbols help support the idea of time as everlasting. The use of “rubies” and “empires” suggests riches and corresponds with the speaker’s attempt to lure in his “mistress”. Additionally, in the second stanza the speaker asserts that if his coy mistress does not take advantage of the present time, then she will end up in a “marble vault”. This reference to a “marble vault” connotes a stone, cold, and deadly image, which is exactly the environment that the speaker is trying to describe. To continue along with this theme of death, are the “iron gates of life”, that are mentioned in the third stanza, paint a picture of the loss of life and all hope. Ultimately, the speaker uses these images as symbols to point out what could be if his coy mistress does or does make the most of the time she is given.
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