Comparing 'My Last Duchess And To His Coy Mistress'

Anne Bradstreet’s creative ability was hindered due to her gender’s value in society. Molly Farrell investigates the political obstacles that Anne Bradstreet and Phillis Wheatley had to overcome in order to become successful writers. “Bradstreet here becomes a cunning navigator of intense external pressures as well as a disarming poetic performer who creates room for future women writer to navigate publication” [395]. She struggled to have her writing properly published and respected so she would attempt to make it politically accepted my men. Fortunately, according to Jane Donahue, others “finding sources of strength in their femaleness and inspired by achievements of other women, have asserted themselves confidently” [300]. Anne Bradstreet

Although it is not directly stated in either poem, this view lies subtlety beneath the surface. In “To His Coy Mistress” the narrator argues to “Let us roll all our strength and all / Our sweetness up into one ball, / And tear our pleasures with rough strife” [41-43] and “Now let us sport us while we may,” [37] so that “That long preserved virginity, / And your quaint honor turn to dust, / And into ashes all my lust” [28-30]. The Narrator’s main concern was to “sport” each other before her youthfulness was eaten up and her beauty dimmed. In “My Last Duchess” the poem starts itself saying “That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall, / Looking as if she were alive” [1-2]. The Duke, at this point is already showing that he believed that his duchess should stand looking pretty rather than act in ways that he did not approve of. “Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without/ Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; / Then all the smiles stopped together. There she stands / As if alive.” [44-47] The Duke did not appreciate how she would treat others “as if she ranked / My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name / With anybody’s gift.” [32-34] He viewed himself and his name as a “gift” he gave to her, but he did not approve of the way she treated his name. Joseph Dupras wrote, “his living/ dead subject now ‘stands’ on his terms, not hers” [page 8] in the

This poem is written with individual equality of each partner. “If ever two were one, then surely we” [1]. The beginning of this poem refers to the Christian theme of marriage. “Two shall become one” is a Biblical reference regarding marriage. This phrase does not suggest a superior partner, it implies oneness and equality. This poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband” first addresses the love of the woman, “If ever man were loved by wife, then thee; / If ever wife was happy in a man, / Compare with me, ye women, if you can” [2-4]. The wife begins by explaining that she was in love with her husband and her love could not be counted as equal or less than any other woman’s. The wife says, “My love is such that rivers cannot quench” [7]. She is stating that her love is stronger than raging rivers and cannot be stopped by these weak forces. The poem then addresses the husband’s love for the wife, “Thy love is such I can no way repay” [10]. This line implies that his love for her is stronger than her love for him. His love is exceedingly more than any others’, more unquenchable than many rivers, and he too, is in love with his partner. This love for one’s wife is not seen in “My Last Duchess.” In “My Last Duchess,” instead of valuing the individual value of his partner the duke objectified his duchess. His Duchess was “too soon made glad, /