A Half Cock from a while back:
COYNESS IS QUIETUDE, a study
in itself. The apparition
advances with raised palms, smoke
pouring from its mouth. To do
an intervention - to coax, coerce
acceptance speech from dyed-in-the-wool denier -
is that not also to impose "our
values"? (Discuss, one-sidedly).
For sturdy enough rebuttal, see reverse -
---
The Latin root of "coy" is in "quies", from whence quiet, quietude,
quiescent, acquiescent etc.
There is an ambiguity about whether Marvell's "coy mistress" is one
who has refused to answer, or one from whom the poet has refused to
take "no" for an answer. It is he that has determined that she is
"coy", as opposed to simply unwilling.
Dominic
|