In the Elizabethan era, love poetry was primarily used to seduce women into sex. Most love poetry suggested that lust and the trading of material objects for sex seemingly similar to prostitution were considered love at the time. Ironically, the "love" poetry of the era has very few actual references to love. In the Elizabethan age most love poems were intended to convince the recipient of the poem to sleep with the author. Although these poems could be written in various ways, they had the same end goal. A type of love poetry interpreted according to the "Carpe Dium" mentality, in this type the author was more direct about his desire to sleep with the recipient. The poem “To His Coy Mistress” falls into this category. The poem begins by acknowledging his shyness and accepting it, then compares his love for her "like a growing plant" (page 276). He then goes on to compliment her: "A hundred years should go to praise your eyes and the look on your forehead; two hundred to worship each breast; but thirty thousand to the rest" (page 267, lines 13-16). lead her to believe that she is truly adored and even loved, only shortly thereafter to feel that one day she will lose her virginity and will no longer be appreciated for what she was, “That virginity long preserved; / And thy characteristic honor turns to dust; And to ashes all my lust” (page 267, lines 28-30). Stating that once she loses her beauty she will no longer be desired and there will be no purpose in her shyness feel uncomfortable and would put her in a state of wanting to feel desired. He would then have a harder time getting her to sleep with him Another type of Elizabethan love poetry is the pastoral poem, where the… middle of the paper. .. and because it is not just based on an exchange of sex but conversations, similarities and mutual interest Ironically, most Elizabethan love poetry has very little to do with love. The writers of this poetry were men whose only desire was to have sex with women and used their writing to seduce them. This poem leads one to wonder whether true love ever existed in the Elizabethan age. Shakespeare provides some hope that there was indeed true love during this period, but most writings would suggest that love was merely a trade between men and women, with the man providing a home, wealth, and items such as clothes in sex change. I believe Shakespeare was aware of the rarity of true love because he ends his "Sonnet 130" with "And yet, by heaven, I think my love is rare / As any belied with false comparisons." (page 167, lines 13-14).