John J. Han, Ph.D.

ANDREW MARVELL
(1621-1678)

To His Coy Mistress

"To His Coy Mistress" (composed in circa 1646 and published in 1681) is a lyric poem widely anthologized in college English textbooks. One of the most celebrated carpe diem (“seize the day”) poems in British literature, it has been praised by numerous literary scholars and critics for its brilliantly wrought form, thematic significance, metaphysical conceits, paradox, and irony. In his English Literature in the Early Seventeenth Century 1600-1660 (1962), for example, Douglas Bush notes that throughout the poem’s syllogistic argument “emotional intensity and ironic wit are under such control that the lyric possesses a cavalier elegance and poise, beyond the cavalier level” (173). According to George Saintsbury, author of A Short History of English Literature (1966), Marvell’s early poems “[exhibit] the best characteristics of the Cavalier poets…. [The] passionate magnificence of the Amorists…has no nobler examples than ‘To His Coy Mistress,’ and still more ‘The Definition of Love’” (426). In The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature (1970), George Sampson comments that few English poets surpass Marvell in lyric poetry. Marvell’s lyrics “combine English charm and Latin gravity”; indeed, such poems as “The Nymph,” “To His Coy Mistress,” “The Picture of T. C.,” “The Garden,” as well as the “Mower” pieces and the pastoral dialogues, are “worthy of a place in any anthology of the best” (314). Meanwhile, Peter Quennell, in his A History of English Literature (1973), observes that “To His Coy Mistress” is “Marvell’s most sustained effort…in which he tempers ‘Metaphysical’ conceits with a more forceful and spontaneous eloquence” (138).

I have taught “To His Coy Mistress” at the college level for almost a decade now. At Missouri Baptist University, where I currently teach, I assign Marvell’s poem in English Composition II (Argumentative and Research-based Writing) as an example of a cleverly developed proposition. My students in World Literary Types and 17^th- and 18^th-century British literature courses also read this poem as a representative metaphysical lyric. Indeed, “To His Coy Mistress” teaches much about the elements of persuasion/argumentation, figures of speech, denotation/connotation, human love/sex, time, death, and immortality. The primary purpose of teaching Marvell’s poem is to help students understand how Marvell uses poetic language, what the male speaker’s thesis is, how he develops his argument, whether his persuasion is convincing, what his ideas are both intellectually and spiritually, and how committed Christians should respond to his claim. Despite the speaker’s obvious preoccupation with religious issues, however, it is not taught from the position of a Sunday school teacher. Rather than sermonizing the poem, I focus on its form, theme, and rhetorical strategy before we critique its content from a variety of critical perspectives. Indeed, one cannot integrate faith successfully into literary studies without first understanding the text and its context thoroughly; any faith-based approach to a literary work would be shaky and hollow if the approach were not accompanied by a rigorous analysis of the literary work at hand.

Typically, “To His Coy Mistress” is taught in a 55-minute setting. At the beginning of the class, I invite a student, preferably a male, to recite the poem. Then students are asked about their “gut reaction” to this work. Unfortunately, not many of them thoroughly understand this poem. They will notice that its male speaker, an erudite man, tries to persuade a reluctant mistress (a “sweetheart” in contemporary usage) to accept his proposal of physical love. Those who are unfamiliar with the conventions of seventeenth-century metaphysical poetry, however, may feel that the poem is merely “weird,” “strange,” or “sexist.” They recognize that there is something questionable about the male suitor’s use of flowery language in the first stanza. They also do not like the “bizarre” images in the second stanza: “then worms shall try / That long-preserved virginity, / And your quaint honor turn to dust, / And into ashes all my lust....” The third stanza is generally less intelligible for students than the first two ones. Sensitive readers may detect the sarcastic, “tongue-in-cheek” tone of the speaker, but others do not comprehend the philosophical/religious dimension of his argument.

After devoting the first ten minutes to discussing students’ precritical responses, we move on to the major step of our discussion: an application of various critical-interpretive approaches to “To His Coy Mistress.” Indeed, critical tools for analyzing this multilayered poem abound. Perhaps the most helpful, easy-to-use resource for teaching Marvell’s work is Wilfred L. Guerin, et al., A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature (4^th ed., 1999). This classical book of critical theory illustrates various approaches to the poem, including the historical-biographical, formalistic, genre, moral-philosophical, psychological, mythological/archetypal, feminist, and cultural studies. In class we discuss all of these interpretive techniques and their embedded critical assumptions. Additionally, two critical approaches—cross-cultural criticism and Christian criticism—are employed for an intercultural and faith-based critique of the poem, respectively. Overall, my pedagogy emphasizes multiple analytic perspectives; a close reading of the text; the biographical, historical, intellectual, and cultural context; multicultural and global perspectives; and a Christian/biblical critique of the text.

One of the most rewarding approaches to “To His Coy Mistress” is historical-biographical. Investigating the author’s life and times is an essential step toward a fuller understanding of the text; it is almost impossible to disconnect a literary work from its creator and his/her milieu. Any general encyclopedia or literature dictionary, not to mention books on Marvell himself, will offer ample background information. The author was an English metaphysical poet living in the seventeenth century. He was a Cambridge-educated intellectual well versed in classical, biblical, and romance traditions, hence a number of erudite allusions in the poem. At the same time, he was a Puritan who might not have endorsed a carnal conception of human love, hence the title “To His Coy Mistress,” not “To My Coy Mistress.” Marvell once served as assistant to John Milton (1608-74), author of the Christian epic Paradise Lost (1667) and Latin secretary in the foreign office. A member of Parliament from 1659 until his death, Marvell ardently supported Oliver Cromwell and authored such famous political satires as The Last Instructions to a Painter (1667) and The Rehearsal Transpos’d (1672-73). Historically, the seventeenth century, in which Marvell lived and wrote, is characterized by the ascendancy of the inductive method of reasoning and by the rising religious skepticism. The male suitor of “To His Coy Mistress,” who doubts the existence of afterlife, is clearly a product of his time.

While historical-biographical criticism regards “To His Coy Mistress” as a reflection of Marvell’s life and background, formalists focus on the form of the text. According to them, literature is distinguished from other forms of expression in its “unique aesthetic qualities”; literature has meaning(s) beyond the author’s “intent” and biography, and a discussion of literature’s qualities, themes, and functions necessitates “close reading” and an attention to its form, language, and detail (Hall 17-19). To formalists, historical-biographical information is secondary to the work’s “form,” which is defined as “a principle by which all subordinate patterns can be accommodated and accounted for” (Guerin, et al. 75). A formalistic approach is particularly helpful for analyzing poetry whose structure is more intricate, and whose diction more condensed, than other forms of literature.

Wilfred L. Guerin and co-authors model a formalistic reading of “To His Coy Mistress” in A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. We find a set of images, metaphors, symbols, and patterns in the poem which contribute to the overall form of the work. A motif that offers insights into “To His Coy Mistress” is that of space and time (“Had we but world enough, and time”); it shows that the poem is “a philosophical consideration of time, of eternity, of man’s pleasure (hedonism) and of salvation in an afterlife (traditional Christianity).” Other thematically important motifs include the sexual motif, which advances the carpe diem theme, and the motifs of wings and birds, roundness, and minerals and other things of earth (rubies, marble, iron, ashes, and dust) (92-96).

The next methodology, the genre approach, is helpful in understanding the surface meaning of the poem. It attempts to ascertain what type of literature we are dealing with in the poem before we investigate its deeper meanings. Genre critics who analyze “To His Coy Mistress” will typically paraphrase the content of the poem to learn what the work says on its primary level. They will determine that Marvell’s work is a lyric poem in which the male speaker proposes sexual intercourse in the form of an argument in three distinct parts: (1) If we had all the time in the world, I could have no objection to even an indefinite postponement of your acceptance of my suit. (2) But the fact is we do not have much time at all; and once this phase of existence (that is, life) is gone, all our chances for love are gone. (3) Therefore the only conclusion that can logically follow is that we should love one another now, while we are young and passionate, and thus seize what pleasures we can in a world where time is all too short (Guerin, et al. 28-29). This proposition is clearly fallacious in its denial of the antecedent; the premises in the first two stanzas are true, but the conclusion is invalid. However, the lover’s suitor, a manipulative talker, does not mind his logical fallacy as long as it serves his selfish desire (Guerin, et al. 29). ¹

The moral-philosophical approach focuses on the moral teaching and/or philosophical thought the author attempts to convey to readers. The assumption behind this interpretive tool is that the primary purpose of literature is to teach its readers. Another assumption is that the author’s ideas clearly exist in the text and are universally accessible to careful readers. Proponents of moral-philosophical criticism include such classical literary theorists as Plato and Horatio, neo-classicist Samuel Johnson, and Victorian critic Matthew Arnold. Obviously, it would be impossible to fully understand such modern writers as Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus without some knowledge of existentialist philosophy. Likewise, it would be much easier to understand Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man with some familiarity with the Age of Reason (Guerin, et al. 25-26).

From the standpoint of moral-philosophical criticism, “To His Coy Mistress” represents the themes of carpe diem and of the loss of Christian faith. Carpe diem, a theme employed by some of Marvell’s contemporary poets as well (for example, Robert Herrick’s “To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time” and Edmund Waller’s “Go, Lovely Rose!”), is inevitably linked to a non-Christian view of sex: sex is something to be dallied with. Interestingly, Marvell’s Puritan background cannot explain the speaker’s cavalier attitude toward sex (hence the limitation of historical-biographical criticism). Apparently, the speaker has been influenced by such empirical scientists/thinkers as Copernicus (1473-1543), who proved that the earth is not the center of the universe; Francis Bacon (1561-1626), who advocated the method of inductive reasoning; and Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), whose philosophy of materialism contradicted the biblical view of humanity (Guerin, et al. 32-33). Indeed, the speaker’s argument is somewhat akin to that of atheistic existentialism which regards inner or subjective experience as more important than “objective” truth. Atheistic existentialists also have faith in every person’s ability to choose for himself for his attitudes, purposes, values, and way of life (Stevenson 78). Marvell’s speaker, who apparently has been searching for the meaning of existence, has determined that life is transitory, that there is no afterlife, and that the only option left for him is to enjoy his life fully indulging in carnal pleasure.²

Psychological critics apply psychoanalytic concepts, developed by Sigmund Freud, Ernest Jones, and other psychiatrists, to the analysis of a literary work. Key principles of psychological criticism include: (1) Human activity is not reducible to conscious intent. (2) Individuals move through developmental stages early in life, and traumas or experiences during that process may have a lasting impact on personality. (3) The psychology of authors has an effect on literary and other forms of cultural representation (Hall 105-08). Psychological critics’ view of a literary work is “psychobiological”; they see a text as a projection of its author’s “unconscious fantasies” (Groden and Kreiswirth 595). They also tend to psychoanalyze the dream and locate sexual symbolism in a work of art. Although psychological criticism has been grossly abused by some of its users, it can still offer some insights into the psychic nature of literature. From the psychological standpoint, “To His Coy Mistress” is an erotic poem replete with sexual images. Sexually suggestive phrases and sentences in the poem—“marble vault,” “My echoing song,” “then worms shall try…my lust,” “instant fire,” and “amorous birds of prey”—are indeed “a sublimation of sensual statement” (Guerin, et al. 151-52).

“To His Coy Mistress” can also be examined from a mythological stance. Myth criticism is an approach based on such works as James Frazer’s The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, 1890-15), Carl Gustav Jung’s The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (2^nd ed., 1968), Maud Bodkin’s Archetypal Patterns in Poetry (1934), and Northrop Frye’s Anatomy of Criticism (1957). The key concept in this interpretive tool is “archetypes” (“prototypes” or “original patterns”), universal images and motifs/patterns present in the collective unconscious; these archetypes are embedded in dreams, myths, and literatures around the globe. Archetypal images include water, sun, colors, circle, serpent, numbers, the archetypal woman, the wise old man, the trickster, garden, tree, and desert. Creation, immortality, and hero archetypes are examples of archetypal motifs/patterns (Guerin, et al. 161-66).

Myth critics will find in “To His Coy Mistress” prototypes of time and immortality. Although Marvell’s poem addresses the issue of male-female love, on a deeper level it also concerns time and immortality, the two motifs commonly found in world myths. The poem presents three different kinds of time. In the first stanza, the speaker attempts to “escape from time” to an Edenic state where the shy mistress and he may play amorously forever; the use of the subjunctive mood (“Had we but world enough, and time"), however, indicates that such an idyllic state is non-existent. The second stanza employs the image of the desert. Here time is controlled by the laws of nature, the laws of mortality, decay, and physical annihilation. In the final stanza, the speaker escapes into cyclical time hoping to gain eternity through passionate love. The sun-of "soul" and "instant fires"-is a universal symbol of life and creative energy, which merges the circle/sphere ("Let us roll all our strength and all / Our sweetness up into one ball”), the archetype of primordial wholeness and unity (Guerin, et al. 175-76).

Meanwhile, feminist criticism is interested in exploring gender issues in a literary text.³ Three of the key principles of feminist literary analysis are (1) Language, institutions, and social power structures have favored men’s interests throughout much of history, which has had a profound impact on women’s ability to express themselves and the quality of their daily lives. (2) Yet, at the same time, women have resisted and subverted men’s oppression in various ways. (3) This combination of male oppression and women’s resistance to it is apparent in many literary and other cultural texts (Hall 202-04).

A feminist approach is certainly relevant in understanding the “To His Coy Mistress” because the poem is fundamentally about the relations between the sexes. The male suitor considers the mistress a sex object, not as a thinking human being. The mistress is not even named. She is completely silenced; she simply listens to a fatherly exhortation from the highly pedantic male speaker. On the other hand, as Wilfred L. Guerin, et al. note, the mistress’s “pent-up power” over the male is suggested by his adulation of her beauty, by her continued resistance to his advances, and by his verbal attacks on her, all of which mask his fear of the woman (216).

The cultural studies approach sees a piece of literature as a cultural text. Cultural studies practitioners scrutinize literary works through not only textual analysis but also such means as linguistic analysis, psychoanalysis, ethnography, and interviews. It “transcends the confines of a particular discipline such as literary criticism or history,” striving to fill in the gap in the text by using insights from various disciplines (Guerin, et al. 240). A cultural studies analysis of “To His Coy Mistress” reveals the culture and era of the male speaker and his mistress. Obviously, the man and his coy lady belong to “high” culture. The man’s dense diction and witty argument show that he is a well-educated gentleman. His addressee is likely equally well educated, for a woman from a “low” class would have a hard time following his pedantic speech. The point of interest for cultural critics is what the male speaker does not show in his flowery speech: the reality of the society in which his contemporaries live. He completely ignores the abject poverty of commoners in his time. The demographics and socioeconomic data would show how privileged he and his lady are. He is also oblivious to the ravages of diseases and fire in his day. The Black Death killed some 75,000 Londoners in mid-seventeenth century. Syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases were common. A disastrous fire also struck London in 1666. In short, Marvell’s speaker and his lady live in a luxurious state, aloof from the real world (Guerin, et al. 276-78).

In addition to all of these well-known approaches, it is possible to apply cross-cultural and Christian approaches to “To His Coy Mistress.” Cross-cultural criticism compares and contrasts world cultures as reflected in literary works for a better understanding of different people groups. It is somewhat akin to myth criticism in its comparative studies of world cultures. However, unlike myth criticism, which borrows insights from religion, anthropology, and cultural history, cross-cultural criticism is not interested in hunting universal archetypes from ancient myths. Rather, it emphasizes a comparative reading of world texts, both ancient and modern, with an open mind. The two assumptions behind this critical approach are (1) Literary texts reflect the general mindset of those who produced them. (2) Reading texts from other cultures enhances our understanding of those cultures. The cross-cultural approach recognizes the commonalities in human experiences that exist across cultural lines. It also respects—and celebrates—cultural differences that exist among different people groups. Indeed, cross-cultural reading liberates us from the shackles of bias, prejudice, and provinciality, thus transforming us into true citizens of the world.

From the standpoint of cross-cultural criticism, the search for immortality and carpe diem are universal themes in world literature. Gilgamesh, a Mesopotamian epic poem preceding the book of Genesis by centuries, centers on the protagonist’s desperate search for eternity. Gilgamesh, brokenhearted as his friend/double Enkidu suddenly dies, launches a perilous journey in search of immortality. He finally manages to obtain the flower of eternal youth, but the snake (serpent) smells the fragrance of the plant and carries off the plant. Gilgamesh comes back home empty-handed. On return, he realizes that the best thing a man can do is to enjoy his present life and leave his name behind. At the end of the poem, the father of the gods, Enlil of the mountains, decrees for Gilgamesh: “O Gilgamesh, this was the meaning of your dream. You were given kingship, such was your destiny, everlasting life was not your destiny. Because of this do not be sad at heart, do not be grieved or oppressed; he has given you power to bind and to loose, to be the darkness and the light of mankind….” (Mack, et al. 41-42). Another Eastern literary work that treats a yearning for eternal life can be found in “[The green hills—how can it be],” a short poem from Korea. The poet, Yi Hwang (1501-71), writes, “The green hills—how can it be / that they are green eternally? / Flowing streams—how can it be; / night and day do they never stand still? / We also, we can never stop, / we shall grow green eternally” (Caws and Prendergast 775).

A common response to the reality of the transience of human life has been the attitude of carpe diem. It is found in the works of such European writers as Horace, Ovid, and Robert Herrick, as well as in the Goliardic verse of the Middle Ages, in the French Renaissance lyrics (consider the lyricist Pierre de Ronsard), and in William Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night.⁴ Carpe diem, however, pervades Eastern literature as well. Rubáiyát, a medieval Persian poetry collection by Omar Khayyám, includes passionate, but melancholy, lyrics on the pleasures and sorrows of love and on the wisdom of making hay while the sun shines: “Ah, my Belovéd, fill the Cup that clears / TO-DAY of past Regrets and future Fears— / To-morrow?—Why, To-morrow I may be / Myself with Yesterday’s Sev’n Thousand Years” (26).

Finally, the Christian approach poses the questions “How do we, as committed Christians, respond to this text?” “What does the Bible—the supreme moral guidebook for believers—say about the key issues raised by the author?” “What does the text tell us about the spiritual state of the author and/or the character(s)?” From a Christian perspective, all human knowledge should be screened through the microscope of the Word of God, and thus subjecting all literary texts to a Christian critique is both justified and necessary. In a sense, this approach is the Christian equivalent to secular reader-response analysis, a popular postmodern methodology. Although Christian criticism is somewhat similar to moral-philosophical criticism, it compels the reader to be more personally involved in the text from a believer’s perspective. Christian criticism is also different from biblical criticism, which refers to the critical analysis of the Bible itself, and from religious criticism, which does not necessarily examine literature with Christian commitment.⁵

Christian critics will see the problem with the speaker of “To His Coy Mistress”: his epicurean or hedonistic idea of love and time. The speaker’s concept of love is not “Agape” but “Eros,” a love of the flesh. To him, there is no life after physical death, and there is no purpose or ultimate meaning to human existence. Since there is nothing besides the here and now, the only sensible option left for us is to enjoy sex to the fullest while we breathe. By doing so, he concludes, we may be able to make eternity jealous of us: “Thus, though we cannot make our sun / Stand still, yet we will make him run.” But then, what do the Scriptures say about human love? According to Galatians 5:17, fleshly desire works against the Spirit: “For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law” (NIV). The apostle Peter also exhorts fellow Christians, “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul” (NIV). A human love that is not sanctioned by God is wrong. As C. Jeff Richardson aptly notes, carpe diem to the believer means “living an abundant life—a life filled with eternal significance and everlasting joy.”

During the final ten minutes of my class, I wrap up the discussion, evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the critical approaches covered above. Although historical-biographical criticism was discredited by the formalists (New Critics) in the twentieth century, it still helps us understand the poem in the context of the author’s life and times. Formalist criticism promotes close reading, a skill many of today’s impatient, fast-paced students seem to lack. Genre critics may not offer a sophisticated reading of the text, but their approach is helpful in ascertaining the text’s literary mode and understanding the work on its surface level. Whether a literary text always offers moral lessons or philosophical ideas is debatable, but moral-philosophical criticism is still valid because few writers write without having some “ideas” to convey to readers. Approaching the text from the psychological perspective can help us read between the lines of the text, although a farfetched sexualization of the text is a constant danger. Mythological / archetypal criticism has lost its wide currency now, but it still offers some insight into the universal thought patterns that exist in world literatures. In recent decades, the term feminism has earned a bad name due to its radical practitioners. However, the fundamental questions posed by reasonable feminists are clearly relevant in analyzing some literary texts. The main drawback of cultural studies criticism is that it tends to overemphasize what is not stated in the text. If used judiciously, however, it will allow us to see what the author and the characters in his/her work do not. The cross-cultural approach stresses a comparative reading of literary texts with the intention of bridging the cultural gap among different people groups. Considering the fact that multicultural and global perspectives have become essential components in most school curricular today, a cross-cultural reading of texts can be a useful practice for students.⁶Finally, Christian criticism, which integrates faith and learning, shows Christian readers how to critique secular text/culture from a biblical standpoint.⁷

Obviously, as Donald E. Hall rightly notes in his Literary and Cultural Theory (2001), no single methodology explains a text “completely” or “definitely” (10). Each critical approach has its strengths and weaknesses, and the reader should exercise discernment in employing a particular methodology. Approaching a literary work is akin to exploring an elephant blindfolded. Different texts may require different approaches because they are based on different philosophical, epistemological, and theological assumptions. No approach is free from bias, and no critical approach is without some merit.

Of the various interpretive tools Wilfred L. Guerin, et al., introduce in their book, author- or text-based approaches (the historical-biographical, genre, moral-philosophical, and formalistic) seem to offer more balanced and commonsensical explanations on texts than their reader-based counterparts (the psychological, mythological/archetypal, feminist, and cultural studies). Reader-based interpretive tools tend to heavily textualize, historicize, politicize, and sexualize literary works. Admittedly, they are useful in helping us “read between the lines”; it would also be impossible, particularly in Christian hermeneutics, to relate to the contemporary world without some emphasis on reader-based reading.⁸ The main weakness of reader-based approaches is that they heavily prefer reading into the text to reading out of it. As Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart accurately observe, “[We] inevitably bring to the text all that we are, with all of our experiences, culture, and prior understandings of words and ideas. Sometimes what we bring to the text, unintentionally to be sure, leads us astray, or else causes us to read all kinds of foreign ideas into the text” (14).

Indeed, overemphasizing the role of the reader risks distorting what the author truly intended to say through his work. As C. S. Lewis advises in his An Experiment in Criticism, we should not “use” poetry but “receive” it (100). “What the poem means to me [and] what happens to me when I read it” may not be the same as what the poet meant to say (100-01). As readers, we should transcend ourselves, seeking to “see with other eyes, to imagine with other imaginations, to feel with other hearts, as well as with our own” (137). Whether the author himself really knows what he is saying is disputable. However, it would be relatively safer and more productive if the reader approached the text with the assumption that authorial intensions do exist. Language exists—and should exist—to provide us with order and meaning, not chaos and purposelessness. Indeed, deconstructionist reading of literary texts, which discredits language’s ability to convey coherent messages, has resulted in critical cynicism among scholars. Authorial intentions should be respected—and deserve to be investigated with a degree of respect—by the reader.

A satisfactory understanding of a literary work necessitates a multi-level investigation—of the poem’s context, of the text itself, of the poem’s socio-political implications, of the poem’s trans-cultural implications, and of the Christian implications. In addition to using multiple critical methods developed by critical theorists, my pedagogy is committed to cross-cultural and Christian readings of the text. Indeed, these two approaches are not separate but intertwined. There are diverse people groups and cultures in the world, and Christian faith does not conflict with multicultural and global perspectives because it considers all humanity a creation of one God. Although human beings are identical in their basic nature, their values and worldviews are generally distinct from one another. From a Christian perspective, it is a blessing of God for humanity to “multiply, diversify, and disperse on the face of the earth” (Metzger and Murphy 1). As designed by God, human culture is not anti-God; rather, it is “the expression of man’s bearing the image of his Creator and sharing, as God’s servant, in God’s kingly rule” (Barker 8). Therefore, it is imperative for today’s Christian students to recognize and understand the diversity of the human community, to learn the similarities and differences among divergent people groups, and to be open to those who are different from themselves racially, ethnically, culturally, and socio-economically.

Endnotes

¹ Genre criticism is mentioned briefly (on three pages) in A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. It is not even listed in such authoritative reference sources as The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism. However, genre criticism is highly popular in biblical studies and is being widely used in theological education today. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth: A Guide to Understanding the Bible (1981; 2^nd ed., 1993), by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, has been acclaimed for its excellent hermeneutical use of genre criticism. For example, the authors rightly point out that constructing a Christian doctrine based exclusively on wisdom writings—Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Job, the Song of Songs, and a number of Psalms—is risky. Determining the literary mode of each biblical document prevents Bible readers from misreading a passage. At Missouri Baptist University, we also employ genre criticism in teaching English 203, World Literary Types. As the course title indicates, we analyze world masterpieces from the perspective of literary genres and their many sub-genres—poetry (epic, sonnet, ballad, elegy, pastoral, hymn, haiku, free verse, etc.), fiction (myth, legend, folklore, fable, fairytale, allegory, parable, romance, novel, novella, short story, etc.), drama (tragedy, comedy, tragicomedy, miracle/mystery play, morality play, pantomime, theater of the absurd, etc.), and nonfiction (biography, autobiography, sermon, diary, journal, epistle, narrative essay, expository essay, argumentative essay, literary criticism, social criticism, philosophical treatise, etc.)

² As an atheistic existentialist, Marvell’s male speaker recalls the Misfit in American novelist Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” In the story, the Misfit, an ill-educated runaway from the penitentiary, massacres a Southern family on vacation. Before he methodically executes them, he tells the grandmother that he has been searching in vain for Christian faith and that he is left with the only option, which is to hurt others:

Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead, and He shouldn’t have done it. He thrown everything off balance. If He did what He said, then it’s nothing for you to do but throw away everything and follow Him, and if He didn’t, then it’s nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can—by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him. No pleasure but meanness. (O’Connor 132)

³ Although modern feminism has existed for the past two centuries, we find a number of feminist figures in earlier literatures. For example, Sophocles’s tragedy Antigone (performed in 442 or 441 B.C.) depicts the conflict between the male chauvinist King Creon and Antigone, a strong-willed woman who defies his inhumane decree. Aristophanes’s Lysistrata, a pacifist comedy produced in 411 B.C., describes a group of Athenian women who successfully force their husbands to end the Peloponnesian War. Feminism today is viewed generally negatively in conservative Christian circles. Indeed, radical feminism has antagonized not only some males but also moderate feminists. However, many of the questions rational feminists raise appear to be worthy of consideration in literary analysis.

⁴ In Shakespeare’s play, the clown sings:

What is love? ’Tis not hereafter;
Present mirth hath present laughter;
      What’s to come is still unsure:
In delay there lies no plenty;
Then come and kiss me, sweet and twenty,
      Youth’s stuff will not endure. (316)

⁵ In his insightful essay “The Need for a Religious Literary Criticism,” Dennis Taylor does use “religious literary criticism” as the synonym of “Christian [literary] criticism” which I use in this paper: “The need for a religious literary criticism is not only reflective of a present scholarly void, but also comes out of a spiritual hunger, felt by many teachers and students, for a way of discussing the intersections of their own spiritual lives with what they read” (124). I prefer “Christian” to “religious” because these two terms are not interchangeable; a religious person is not necessarily a Christian. Indeed, numerous religiously oriented critics have investigated Christian themes, motifs, and patterns in secular literature, without providing any moral critique of it.

⁶ One of the purposes of Missouri Baptist University’s general education curriculum is to promote multicultural and global perspectives: Students “will enhance their understanding of, and develop an appreciation for, diverse human cultures.” Another purpose of the University’s general education program is to “develop and enhance an understanding of themselves as they relate to a global environment (socially, aesthetically, politically, and physically)” (Catalog 79). The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) also requires that teacher education units and their programs in the state integrate multicultural and global perspectives in their curricula.

⁷ Like other evangelical Christian institutions of higher learning, Missouri Baptist University actively pursues faith-and-learning integration. The mission statement makes it clear that the university emphasizes “academic excellence” and maintains “a Biblically-based Christian perspective” (Catalog 7).

⁸ Although contemporary critical theories are generally based on relativism and secularism, it would be a mistake for Christian readers to brush those theories aside. A well-wrought literary work is multi-dimensional, which requires employment of various critical tools. In the introduction to A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory (1985), Raman Selden offers two reasons how contemporary approaches to literature can affect our experience and understanding of reading and writing:

First, an emphasis on [contemporary] theory tends to undermine reading as an innocent activity…. Some readers may cherish their illusions and mourn the loss of innocence, but, if they are serious readers, they cannot ignore the deeper issues raised by the major literary theorists in recent years. Secondly, far from having a sterile effect on our reading, new ways of seeing literature can revitalise our engagement with texts…. If we are to be adventurous and exploratory in our reading of literature, we must also be adventurous in our thinking about literature. (2-3)

Regarding contemporary approaches to Christian hermeneutics, see Anthony Thistleton’s New Horizons in Hermeneutics: The Theory and Practice of Transforming Biblical Reading (1992) and Hans-Georg Gadamer’s Truth and Method (1990). These two books raise primary questions on how to deal with two horizons of interpretation. Also, Paul Ricoeur’s Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences (1998) discusses the distanciation of the written text.

Works Cited

Barker, Kenneth, et al., eds. The NIV Study Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995.

Bush, Douglas. English Literature in the Early Seventeenth Century 1600-1660. 2^nd ed. New York: Oxford UP, 1962.

Caws, Mary Ann, and Christopher Prendergast, eds. The HarperCollins World Reader. Single volume edition. New York: Longman, 1994.

Fee, Gordon D., and Douglas Stuart. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth: A Guide to Understanding the Bible. 2^nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1993.

Groden, Michael, and Martin Kreiswirth.The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1994.

Guerin, Wilfred L., et al. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. 4^th ed. New York: Oxford UP, 1999.

Hall, Donald E. Literary and Cultural Theory: From Basic Principles to Advanced Applications. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001.

Shakespeare, William. The Complete Works. Ed. Alfred Harbage. New York: Viking, 1969.

Lewis, C. S. An Experiment in Criticism. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1969.

Mack, Maynard, et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Expanded edition in one volume. New York: Norton, 1997.

Metzger, Bruce M., and Roland E. Murphy, eds. The New Oxford Annotated Bible. NRSV.New York: Oxford UP, 1994.

Missouri Baptist College. 2000-2003 Catalog.

O’Connor, Flannery. The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor. New York: Noonday, 1971.

Omar Khayyám. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Trans. Edward Fitzgerald. New York: Walter J. Black, 1942.

Quennell, Peter. A History of English Literature. Springfield, MA: G&C Merriam, 1973.

Richardson, C. Jeff. “Carpe Diem: Living a Life That Matters.” 1996. 15 April 2003. <http://www.tyler.net/triddorus/carpe.htm>.

Saintsbury, George. A Short History of English Literature. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1966.

Sampson, George. The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature.3^rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1970.

Selden, Raman. Introduction. A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory. Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 1985.

Stevenson, Leslie. Seven Theories of Human Nature. New York: Oxford UP, 1974.

Taylor, Dennis. “The Need for a Religious Literary Criticism.” Religion and the Arts: A Journal from Boston College 1.1 (1996): 124-50.

JOHN J. HAN <hanjn@mobap.edu> is Associate Professor of English at Missouri Baptist University. He serves as Chair of the University’s Faith & Learning Committee and as Editor of Intégrité: A Faith and Learning Journal. He holds an M.A. (Kansas State) and a Ph.D. (Nebraska), and has studied religion at MBU. Dr. Han has dozens of articles in such journals and books as Literature and Belief, Intégrité, New Immigrant Literatures in the United States, Feminist Writers, Asian American Novelists, Asian American Autobiographers, Asian American Playwrights, and Catholic Women Writers. Additional articles will appear in Writers of the American Renaissance, An Encyclopedia to Catholic Literature, American Literature in Historical Context, 1870-1920, and From around the Globe: Secular Authors and Biblical Perspectives.

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