A Comparison of Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress and John Donne's The Sunne Rising
Both poems "To His Coy Mistress" and "The Sunne Rising" were written
by metaphysical poets, this is one of many similarities in the poems.
However, there are also a number of differences between them.
In both poems, there is an obvious link to the theme of "Carpe Diem"
which simply means "seize the day". The poems relate to time and that
of how it's running out. They seem to be in a rush.
The content of the poem is Marvell writing a poem to his love partner.
They are truly in love with each other and their love is very
passionate for one another. However, there is something missing in
their relationship and that is the sexual side. They haven't had
sexual intercourse and the poem is about Marvell trying to persuade
his partner into making love to him. He feels that time is running out
and that they should "seize the moment". The life expectancy was at a
lower rate in the times of the poem, and he doesn't want to leave
things too late. There were many types of diseases in those days, with
health services very limited. Today, our life expectancy is on average
77, however, in those days anyone who reached the age of 40 was
considered as an older-aged person. He obviously feels that his
partner needs a slight push into making love; he shows this by calling
her his "Coy Mistress", which means his shy or reluctant woman.
The poem is split into three paragraphs, which is unusual for poems.
These three paragraphs state the three stages of argument. The first
part is trying o say that if they had all the time in the world, then
he wouldn't need to wr...
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... can make you feel happy, but love is more important in
life. Money can be liked but never loved like true beauty.
I believe it's imperative that we look at the poems from a different
perspective. Both compliment the women mentioned but both have
different messages. "To His Coy Mistress" is a persuasive poem which
contains flattery to try and convince the woman to take their
relationship to the next level. In "The Sunne Rising", the message is
that love is more important than wealth. The main themes are time and
love and both are conveyed very cleverly with both wit and deception.
I enjoyed both poems as they both showed sound comparisons and true
feelings. I preferred the poem by Andrew Marvell as it had a sense of
urgency and it was rhythmic to which I found exciting as I never knew
what to expect next in the poem.
The 17th century opened with a generation of great social change which culminated in the eventual execution of King Charles I in 1649. This created an atmosphere of conflict that permeates much of the literature of the period. The writings of John Donne are rife with this conflict, reflecting in their content a view of love and women radically and cynically altered from that which preceding generations of poets had handed down.
Comparing Notions of Piety in The Wakefield Mystery Plays, The Book of Margery Kempe, and Le Morte D'Arthur
Then he goes onto say that in an ideal world one would have time to go
I think that what the author was trying to imply in this passage was that in his personal experience, he has noticed that many people take many things for granted and that they don’t live their lives according to what they want and need to do. So much is wasted during one’s lifetime, and people just allow their lives to pass them by.
Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton anthology of English literature. 9th ed., A, New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. Pp
Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. A. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print
It is common to ascribe to Donne the status of archetypal logical poet- a man whose works are tightly crafted, confident, and certain in their application of metaphor and analogy. True enough, Donne’s poem seems to suggest a certain self-security: we see a tight, predictable rhyme scheme, and an ordered structure. There is also arguably a wealth of rhetorical resources - Donne does not shy away from using the lexis of the military (“triumph’st”), the medical (“two bloods…mingled”) or even the religious (“cloysterd”, “sacrilege”). Such a feature that might be read as hinting at Donne’s essential confidence in his ability to create a unified philosophy, to adapt a wide range of discourses, to demonstrate poetic craft. However, I want to suggest that the relations of power and position of sexuality in this small poem are a great deal less certain than such an interpretation might suggest.
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 1c. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print. The.
Abrams, M.H., et al. ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. 2 Vols. New York: Norton, 1993.
*Abrams, M.H., ed., et al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth Edition. Vol.I. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1993.
“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.
Abrams, M.H. and Greenblatt, Stephen eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Seventh Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001.
"The first poet in the world in some things," applauded Ben Jonson of his friend, John Donne (Donne, John Donne: A Selection of His Poetry 11). In the midst of the stylized and often frivolous verses of the Elizabethan and cavalier poets, John Donne's work emerges as startling, intellectual, and honest to human nature and emotion- classifying him as the first of the modern poets. Through an exploration of Donne's "The Sun Rising" and "The Flea", we shall reveal Donne's innovative style and technique, and how this repels him from the poetic orthodoxy of the seventeenth century and towards the style of the modern age.
Black, Joseph, et al, eds The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: Concise Ed, Volume A. 2nd ed. Peterborough, Ont: Broadview. 2011. Print.
Abrams, M.H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 1993.