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Marvell composed “To His Coy Mistress” using a metrical form known as iambic tetrameter, which refers to a line that comprises four iambic feet. (To refresh your memory, an iamb is a foot that consists of one short and one long syllable. The words “to-day” and “sup-pose” are both naturally iambic.) In the seventeenth-century, when Marvell wrote the poem, the choice to use iambic tetrameter was significant. By that time, iambic pentameter had been the golden standard for English verse for over a century. Iambic pentameter, which consists of five iambic feet, was thought to preserve the noble cadences of the English language. It also avoided the sing-song qualities of other verse forms, like ballads. Indeed, the noble air of iambic pentameter earned it the alternative name of “heroic verse.” By contrast, the stunted line length of iambic tetrameter of “To His Coy Mistress” would have sounded distinctly less noble to Marvell’s contemporaries. Having one less metrical foot per line brings the rhyming words closer together, and produces a rhythm that naturally sounds more folksy. For this reason, Marvell’s first readers would have understood the choice of meter to produce a humorous effect.

Marvell only rarely deviates from regular iambic rhythm, and usually to significant effect. Consider, for example, the lines that open the second stanza, as the speaker’s thoughts turn dark: “But at my back I always hear / Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near” (lines 21–22). The first line is perfectly regular iambic tetrameter: “But at my back I al-ways hear.” By contrast, the second line replaces the first three feet with trochees, which are metrical feet that consist of one long syllable followed by two short syllables: “Time’s wing-èd char-i-ot hur-ry-ing near.” The use of trochees creates a syncopated rhythm that sounds faster to the ear, but it also extends the line by introducing extra syllables. Thus, even as the speaker references time’s quickening pace, he effectively slows time down by expanding the line. This deviation from metrical regularity is important because it suggests that the speaker is not simply using mortality to convince his mistress to have sex with him. Indeed, the deviation subtly suggests that the speaker personally experiences anxiety about his own decline and eventual death.

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