Comparison of Andrew Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress' and Joh

             Comparison of Andrew Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress' and John Donne's 'The Sun Rising'
             These poems are both on the view of romance, but as you will read they both have very different opinions.
             The poems include an argument within themselves. The poem 'To His Coy Mistress' begins with an initial thought, then introduces a qualification to the thought, and ends with a resolution to the conflict. In addition, Marvell manages to combine this with a passionate poem of seduction. He firstly argues that if the couple had all the time in the world, he would woo his lady so slowly her coyness would be irrelevant.
             "Had we but world enough, and time,
             This coyness, lady, were no crime."
             He proceeds to outline what he would do out of love for his lady if they were both to live for much longer, mentioning such lengths of time as centuries and ages. Throughout this initial premise of 'if', he uses prospective imagery to illustrate his argument. For example, he describes his life as a 'vegetable' love, which gives connotations of a slow, developing love to grow for his 'mistress', and the image that he must tend to his love, just like a gardener does to his vegetables. There is also complete devotion displayed in this first stage of the argument, namely:
             Love you ten years before the flood.
             And you should, if you please, refuse
             Here, this deals with the extremity of his argument. He is prepared to love her ten years before the 'flood' (presumably Noah's Ark), and would not be at all insulted if she refused to love him back until the conversion of the Jews, seemingly until the end of time. Once his opinions have been established, he then continues to the second stage of his argument.
             Beginning with the conjunction of 'But' - a word that prepares us for an alternative argument, Marvell's second stage is the concepts of reality. He now asserts that time is an issue, having already established t...

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Comparison of Andrew Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress' and Joh. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 02:54, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/100881.html