This paper compares Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" to Robert Herrick's "Corinna's Going A-Maying." It contains examinations
of both speakers, their intentions, their desires, and their rhetorical
approaches/seduction strategies. It also explores possible differences between the speakers'
mistresses, the addressees, and the ways in which the speakers' words reveal their respective perceptions of their mistresses. It shows how, although both speakers focus on the same basic themes (seizing the day and the transience of life), the vast differences in their rhetorical approaches and linguistic choices reveal different perceived obstacles to their goal (seduction) and different hesitations on the part of their mistresses.