A Comparison of Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress and Thomas Hardy's The Ruined Maid
In this essay I will look at the two poems, explore what the poems are
about, look at the language and images used in them by the writers and
then compare the two.
"The ruined maid" by Thomas Hardy is a conversation between two women;
"Melia", the ruined maid herself and another lady, her friend of whom
she used to know when she lived in need. Melia's friend brings up all
different points about Melia that have changed, for example the way
she looks, 'now you've gay bracelets' and acts, 'you'd sigh and you'd
sock' but Melia just says a few simple words in reply.
'To his coy mistress' by Andrew Marvell is a one sided argument and is
about a man trying to persuade his mistress to lose her virginity with
him before her looks and beauty start to go, as she gets older. He
tries to persuade her to have sex with him by using flattery, humour
and frightening, almost blackmailing her by describing different
shocking images.
Hardy writes 'The ruined maid' in an unusual way, one of which is not
usually heard of, he writes it as if it was an actual informal
conversation between two women. He creates this by using various
amounts of punctuation; he uses speech marks throughout the poem, uses
dashes to separate the two different people?s speech, and uses
question marks, explanation marks and further speech marks in all the
appropriate places, which all help to give the effect of the
conversation happening, from the first line to the last and encourages
the reader to think of it more as a dialogue when reading it.
'Your talking quite fits 'ee for high compa-ny!'-
?Some polish is gained with one?s ruin,? said she? is an e...
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...gh it is obvious that she does not want to, as she
would have known that it wasn?t the best thing to do, that her marital
status would have been in ruins, her reputation in tatters. However in
?The ruined maid? Melia had already have had sex and although her old
life and the only way she knew was gone, she had gained a much better
one, where although she is no longer of any marital value, she appears
(unless it is just a cover) to be more polished and seems happier in
general life.
If you look at it in one way, ?The ruined maid? could be what could
happen to the mistress in ?To his coy mistress?. It could be what
happens to her if she goes through with the man?s proposal so in
conclusion, although the poems tell the tales of two different
stories, they could easily be part of the same one, where ?The ruined
maid? follows on from ?To his coy mistress?.
life would be her own again gave her a contentment that she had not felt in a
As you can see, upon looking at both pieces of writing from a different angle, there is always the opportunity for different interpretations. It is certain that a deeper analysis will give even more possible themes and common topics. Now that you have seen how each of these can be read in more than one way, hopefully you can read other pieces of poetry, attain different meanings for them and have greater love and knowledge for poetry in general.
McAuley also criticizes prejudice and stereotyping in the society. I enjoyed reading both ‘The Seduction’ and ‘To His Coy Mistress’. I preferred Eileen McAuley’s ‘The Seduction because it has a more meaningful message, also because it is directed at my age group.
Ruined Maid and To His Coy Mistress Both the “Ruined Maid” and “To His Coy Mistress” provide us with disturbing images / pictures of love, sex and relationships as I am about to explain. The “Ruined Maid” was written by Thomas Hardy in 1866, during the time when women didn’t have sex before marriage and they were thrown out of their village for being “ruined”. The public at that point in history had a very strict view of sex and marriage. They thought that women in particular should never have sex before marriage and they should have everything taken off them for being “ruined”.
The poetry by these two poets creates several different images, both overall, each with a different goal, have achieved their purposes. Though from slightly different times, they can both be recognized and appreciated as poets who did not fear the outside, and were willing to put themselves out there to create both truth and beauty.
Both poems explore the injustices of love and power and also the consequences of what happens with a potentially bad decision. Not only this, they both address these themes with a particular balance of the two; they both have similarities, yet they both contrast in many different ways. Each poem shares similarities which are reflections of the poets’ lives before they became literary sensations.
Both authors use figurative language to help develop sensory details. In the poem It states, “And I sunned it with my smiles, And with soft deceitful wiles.” As the author explains how the character is feeling, the reader can create a specific image in there head based on the details that is given throughout the poem. Specifically this piece of evidence shows the narrator growing more angry and having more rage. In the short story ” it states, “We are below the river's bed. The drops of moisture trickle among bones.” From this piece of text evidence the reader can sense the cold dark emotion that is trying to be formed. Also this excerpt shows the conflict that is about to become and the revenge that is about to take place. By the story and the poem using sensory details, they both share many comparisons.
The two poems I have chosen to explain are Piano by D H Lawrence and
(A Comparing of To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell and To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick)
‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ and ‘The Preservation of Flowers’: two notable poems, two very different styles of writing. This essay will look at their contrasts and similarities, from relevant formal aspects, to the deeper meanings hidden between the lines. We will examine both writers use of rhyme scheme, sound patterning, word choice, figurative language and punctuation. It will also touch a little on the backgrounds of the writers themselves and their inspirations, with the intention of gaining a greater understanding of both texts.
result it has on people. In all three poems the last line of the poems
The two poems I have chosen to compare for this essay are 'How do I
I intend to demonstrate that both poems largely follow the rules of haiku. However, they achieve their effects by using different techniques. Despite the fact that the contexts of the two poems set them apart, both poems can be thought of as having similar meanings.
A Comparison of ‘To His Coy Mistress’ by Andrew Marvell and ‘To His Mistress Going to Bed’ by John Donne
In first poem, a young seven-year-old girl named Lyca falls asleep in the wilderness under a tree. While her parents worry about her, she sleeps innocently in the woods with a lion prancing around her while she slumbers. The poetic vision seems to be a portrayal of young love--of innocence unprotected in the passion-haunted forest. In the second poem, found in "Experience," the feeling shifts from innocence to suggest a subversive course of love exploration. The young girl, Ona, discovers passion only to find that her father has a negative view on the very love she has just been introduced to.