to his coy mistress............?

Question

Why does the tital say HIS? possibly because it was not given a tital by the author? Or is the aurthor taking a step back?

Answer 1

It's just a very old-fashioned way of speaking. It's the same phenomenon that sees self-portraits sometimes titled "Portrait of the artist as a young man" - This one essentially means "From the author to his coy mistress": as you say, it's the author taking a step back :o)