Compare A Beautiful Young Nymph Going To Bed '

Eng 2224 term essay

Both Swift’s “A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed” (now referred to as “BYNGB”) and Keats’s “To A Lady Seen For a Few Moments At Vauxhall” (now referred to as “TLSFFMV”)describe the women in their poems as having the upmost beauty. Swift uses contradictory language as well as end rhymes to convey a less serious poem about unconventional beauty, but Keats uses imagery, metaphors and an alternating rhyme scheme in order to display his poem as being a more serious and romantic piece about the heartaches of love.

Swift uses specific language in “BYNGB” in order to show how the speaker finds Corinna beautiful. First off, the name, “Corinna” holds significance in the poem. The poem reveals that she is a prostitute, making “Corinna” a fitting name because it sounds more seductive and promiscuous than normal. The poem begins by stating that Corinna is the “pride of Drury-Lane” whose beauty reigns in the red light district. While reading these first few lines, the reader can infer that

The poem almost has a sonnet-like feel, because the reader is more or less describing his love for the woman and how he feels blinded to anything but her beauty. The rhyme scheme of the poem makes the reader go over the poem more slowly than “BYNGB.” Unlike “BYNGB,” “TLSFFMV” doesn’t have a sing-song read to it. Keats wants the reader to mull over the content and try to tune into the feelings of the speaker. Furthermore, the use of the “ABAB” rhyme scheme lets every four lines feel like a completely rounded thought. Notably, the last two lines are a rhyming couplet, which makes them stand out compared to the rest of the poem. The rhyming couplet aids in getting the speaker’s message to stand out because it breaks away from the normal rhyme scheme of the poem. Once again, the rhymed lines also serve as giving the poem a definite “end” and a feeling of