The Theme of Romantic Love in To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell and Valentine by Carol Ann Duffy
For this assignment, I have chosen to analyse two contrasting poems.
The first poem is "To His Coy Mistress" which was written in1650 by
the English poet Andrew Marvell, and it is surprising how modern the
subject matter is. This poem uses language to persuade the poet's
mistress into shedding her coyness. The second poem, "Valentine" by
the contemporary poet Carol Ann Duffy sets out to show how the poet
casts aside the traditional artificial values of love, to place
instead her own truthful picture of love.
"To His Coy Mistress" is a classic seductive poem, a carpe diem poem,
in which the poet expresses his sadness at the thought of time swiftly
passing by and the brevity of love. It comes across as a private
meditation, giving a persuasive argument to his mistress, relating to
the passage of time and the fading of earthly joys.
In the first part of the poem, Marvell presents us with images of time
and space. He tells his mistress what they could achieve in their
relationship if they had sufficient time.
"Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness Lady, were no crime."
Marvell uses the word "crime", in order to suggest that her refusal of
him amounted to a crime. He does this in order to make her feel a bit
guilty or foolish because she is refusing him. This is the first
indication of his persuasive and selfish argument.
Marvell continues by suggesting that if they did have all the time in
the world on their hands, his lady could even walk by the River
Ganges, a river in India, where she could amuse herself by...
... middle of paper ...
..., Andrew
Marvell sets out to crush his mistress's morals with his argument
regarding Time. It could be said Marvell was not as concerned with the
psychological side of love as he was with the physical side. On the
other hand, in "Valentine", Carol Ann Duffy sets out to cast aside any
traditional connotations associated with love in order to implement
her own meditations regarding the true values of love. In my opinion,
Carol Ann Duffy appears to have a better grasp of understanding
regarding the value of true love, as in order to have a good
relationship, it is first necessary to understand the person as a
separate entity and to realise that it is necessary to always look at
things under a true light. When observed under artificial light, so
many minor details can be missed which in the long term could prove
fatal.
...rays three themes of love. First of all, the character of the Chauvelin exhibited a great love for his country, even if it meant dying for it. In addition, the type of family love resided between Marguerite and her brother, even though parting separate ways, where their love is described on page 45 as, “the same deep, intense love.” Lastly, Marguerite and Percy’s relationship showed the intimate love of another person, between a couple. Overall, this book renders the different types of love, which leaves the reader yearning to follow the character’s good examples. In-between the lines, this beautiful story weaves a charming picture of true love and what the consequences of such feelings may behold, either good or bad. Analyzing love may sound sappy, but in the long run, will help individuals personally decided which relationships to keep or liberate themselves from.
Pure Love in Happy Endings by Margaret Atwood Margaret Atwood, through a series of different situations, depicts the lives of typical people facing various obstacles in her short story “Happy Endings”. Despite their individual differences, the stories of each of the characters ultimately end in the same way. In her writing she clearly makes a point of commenting on how everybody dies in the same manner, regardless of their life experiences. Behind the obvious meaning of these seemingly pointless stories lies a deeper and more profound meaning. Love plays a central role in each story, and thus it seems that love is the ultimate goal in life.
Throughout the course of our lives we will experience the deterioration of a loved one due to illness or aging. This may cause us to make a choice of how and where we choose our loved one to die. Authors, Carolyn Jaffe and Carol H. Ehrlich, in their book All Kinds of Love, illustrate how the relationships between doctors, patients', family, friends, hospice volunteers, and hospice nurses all play an important role during he patients last days as they try to reach a "good death". In the book's foreword, Rabbi Earl A. Grollman comments on Jaffe's history of nursing experience and states "Her stories bring alive the concerns, the surprises, the victories, the disappointments, the mistakes, the uncertainties, the joys, and the pain that are part of one's dying" (1, p. v).
Love can influence people in mysterious ways, the underlying cause is promise, that there is hope for something greater than oneself. We also see how this can create a chasm between family members. The fact of the matter is, love can stem from various situations, memories, or personal thoughts. There are some forbidden marriages that turn out to be a good thing, there are also parents who want give a home to an unsuspecting child they never knew they wanted. Certain situations determine who a person is through the experiences they are given and the feelings that are felt from it. Most of the stories that have come along are giving to us with an example of separation, a longing for love, an outcome that may or may not be beneficial in the long
The short story What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, by Raymond Carver, is about two married couples drinking gin and having a talk about the nature of love. The conversation is a little sloppy, and the characters make some comments which could either be meaningless because of excessive alcohol in the bloodstream, or could be the characters' true feelings because of excessive alcohol in the bloodstream. Overall, the author uses this conversation to show that when a relationship first begins, the people involved may have misconceptions about their love, but this love will eventually die off or develop into something much more meaningful.
Love, an emotion everyone can relate to. This theme draws in many readers as it is a very passionate topic. In Nectar in a Sieve, by Kamala Markandaya, she attempts to use love as a major theme throughout the story to keep the audience engaged. However, this method doesn't work in this case because it is not true love, but rather an undermining theme guised by this “fake love.” The true theme, instead of love, is portrayed as anti-feminism and a degradation in power of women. Therefore, love is not an overlying theme in Nectar in a Sieve, but rather women’s dependence on men, which counters feminism beliefs and gives less power to women.
Romance can be defined as a medieval form of narrative which relates tales of chivalry and courtly love. Its heroes, usually knights, are idealized and the plot often contains miraculous or superatural elements. According to Tony Davenport the central medieval sense of romance is ' of narratives of chivalry, in which knights fight for honour and love.' The term amour coutois ( courtly love) was coined by the French critic Gaston Paris in 1883 to categorise what medieval French lyricists or troubadours referred to as ' fin armors'. Romances and lyrics began to develop in the late fourteenth century England, author like Chaucer or Hoccleve produced some of the first english medieval narratives. But how does medieval literature present the expericence of romantic love. In order to answer this question this essay will focus on two tales from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales: the Knight's Tales and the Franklin's Tales. It will show that medieval romance can be used as a vehicle to promote chivalric behaviour as well as exploring a range of philosophical, political, and literary question.
Love has many definitions and can be interpreted in many different ways. William Maxwell demonstrates this in his story “Love”. Maxwell opens up his story with a positive outlook on “Love” by saying, “Miss Vera Brown, she wrote on the blackboard, letter by letter in flawlessly oval palmer method. Our teacher for fifth grade. The name might as well have been graven in stone” (1). By the end of the story, the students “love” for their teachers no longer has a positive meaning, because of a turn in events that leads to a tragic ending. One could claim that throughout the story, Maxwell uses short descriptive sentences with added details that foreshadow the tragic ending.
Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress is a sieze the moment kind of poem in which an anonomyous young man tries to woo the hand of his mistress. This kind of poem gives the reader the idea that time is not only precious, but scarce. The speaker uses many smooth tatics to persuade the young girl, starting with compliments and ending with a more forceful, morbid appraoch. "To His Coy Mistress" is not only witty but imgagistic, full of wordplay, and percieved differently by both males and females.
“To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” by Rober Herrick and Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” have many similarities and differences. The tone of the speakers, the audience each poem is directed to, and the theme make up some of the literary elements that help fit this description.
Lover A Ballad was written as a reply to the poem To His Coy Mistress.
Nims, John . “Love Poem”. Literature to go. Ed. Meyer, Michael. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. Print.
Janice A. Radway teaches in the literature program at Duke University. Before moving to Duke, she taught in the American Civilization Department at the University of Pennsylvania. She says that her teaching and research interests include the history of books and literary production in the United States, together with the history of reading and consumer culture, particularly as they bear on the lives of women. Radway also teaches cultural studies and feminist theory. A writer for Chronicle of Higher Education described Radway as "one of the leaders in the booming interdisciplinary field of cultural studies." Her first book, Reading the Romance (1984) has sold more than 30,00 copies in two editions. Her second book, A Feeling for Books: The Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Taste, and Middle-Class Desire appeared in October of 1997. What follows is a topic-outline of the introduction to the English version of her first book.
from the rest in that they describe a love that has ended or will end
I bet since you read the topic of my paper that you think that this will be a “kissy kissy, lovey gooey” story about two British and American lovebirds. Well, the truth is that it’s not, in fact, it is totally different! The word “romance” has changed very much since our ancestral fathers had defined it. Unfortunately, I cannot write about Valentines Day, and things pertaining to that, but I will tell you how romance used to be and what exactly romance was like before modern day life changed the definition. So now, I’ll explain the differences, as well as the similarities between the British and American Romance.