Comparison of the Poets' Representation of the Lover in To His Coy Mistress and Porphyria's Lover
In "To His Coy Mistress", Andrew Marvell presents a declaration of
love to the object of his desire, but at the same time he
simultaneously develops a systematic argument of reasoning. As a
metaphysical poem, Marvell uses his writing as a tool for sexism;
beneath the surface the poem exists to be manipulated by a society
domineered by testosterone for the fulfilment of male pleasure. The
speaker focuses on the concept of time in an attempt to seduce his
lover.
Andrew Marvell tries in this carpe diem poem, "To His Coy Mistress,"
to use time and symbols to convince her to seize the day. He uses the
river, the worm and many direct references to time to express the
urgency of the situation. He then says that his love is vegetable and
that this coy mistress is the only one that can sustain this living
love. Then he threatens death, gets aggressive, and shows her that her
youth is fleeting, and that if she does not change, she will be
miserable.
"Porphyria's Lover," which first appeared in 1836, is one of the
earliest and most shocking of Browning's dramatic monologues. It is
about the speaker who describes how he murders the woman he loves.
The imagery of "to his coy Mistress" refers to three main themes,
passion, time and decay. Each theme is set out in a way so they all
connect; he implies that because of the lack of time there can be
little passion. And this 'coyness' or how he sees it, resistance leads
to decay or death. He uses imagery such as water in the first stanza,
'the Indian ganges,' and 'by the tide of Humber' and 'the f...
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...ed, but to demand immediate sexual relations because of
their lack of time.
In 'Porphiria's Lover' time is what the lover wants to capture. There
is a point in the poem when he realises she 'worships' him, but it is
a momentary thing and the lover wants to capture that moment.
Both speakers suggest time is against them, but in different ways. In
'Porphiria's Lover' the speaker wants to stop time, and preserve a
moment when he feels this woman is his. 'In His Coy Mistress' the
speaker suggests that time is against them in the sense that both his
patience and time itself will run out and she will have preserved her
virginity for no reason. The lover in 'To His Coy Mistress' shows
death as the end. And after death he will never see 'His Coy Mistress'
again, whereas in 'Porphiria's Lover' death is merely the beginning.
As one of the most well known ancient Roman love poets, Ovid has demonstrated bountiful talents within his writing. When reading myths from his book titled Metamorphoses, you gain an enlightening insight of how he viewed mythology. To Ovid, love was the origin of everything. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that most of his poems relate to the theme of love. However, not all poets are the same and every re-telling of a myth has its own unique perspective. In this paper I will compare and contrast the myth of Medea in Euripides Medea and Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 7. I will then explain how Ovid’s approach to love and loss correlate to his general approach to myth as a whole. I will support my belief with evidence from Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 14.
Archilochus wore this persona as well, believed to have gone through an initiation brought on by the muses (Heller “Greek Lyric Overview”). For Archilochus, the function that he was putting forward the muses’s words can serve as a blurred line that helps to separate his work from his own individual poetic agendas. Yet, his individual agency cannot be circumvented. In “To An Ex-Mistress” we see Archilochus’s own qualms come to bare, “such was the lust for sex that, worming in under my heart, quite blinded me and robbed me of my young wits…” (fr. 191W). Reminiscent of Sappho, Archilochus brings in sexuality as a topic of investigation and one can only imagine what social setting Archilochus might have chosen to degrade his ex-lover. Was this piece presented for humor or was this piece a serious analysis of man’s own fragility to his sexual desires? Here, we see how social context can certainly illuminate the impact of the poet’s
In classical Greek literature the subject of love is commonly a prominent theme. However, throughout these varied texts the subject of Love becomes a multi-faceted being. From this common occurrence in literature we can assume that this subject had a large impact on day-to-day life. One text that explores the many faces of love in everyday life is Plato’s Symposium. In this text we hear a number of views on the subject of love and what the true nature of love is. This essay will focus on a speech by Pausanius. Pausanius’s speech concentrates on the goddess Aphrodite. In particular he looks at her two forms, as a promoter of “Celestial Love” as well as “Common Love.” This idea of “Common Love” can be seen in a real life context in the tragedy “Hippolytus” by Euripides. This brings the philosophical views made by Pausanius into a real-life context.
In the poem "Porphyria's Lover," the lover begins by describing the unfolding scene to an unidentified listener: "and from her form / Withdrew the dripping cloak and shawl, / And laid her soiled gloves by, untied / Her hat and let the damp hair fall" (10-13). The lover, left alone in the cottage, relates the events of the dark, stormy evening in which he anxiously waits "with heart fit to break" for his beloved Porphyria to enter. "Evidently, her absence is due to her attendance at a 'gay feast,' one of the 'vainer ties' which Porphyria presumably cultivated" (Magill 338). When she finally arrives, he tells the reader: "she sat down by my side / And called me. When no voice replied" (14-15). Porphyria speaks to him, "murmuring how she loved [him]" while the lover silently watches, becoming the mastered object to be petted and "loved." However, when he looks into her eyes, he knows that she loves him: "at last I knew / Porphyria worshipped ...
Indeed, Phaedras? representation of male homoerotics aligns quite easily with that of the lyric poets. Theognis speaks often...
There are many themes that occur and can be interpreted differently throughout the novel. The three main themes that stand out most are healing, communication, and relationships.
"Porphyria's Lover" is an exhilarating love story given from a lunatic's point of view. It is the story of a man who is so obsessed with Porphyria that he decides to keep her for himself. The only way he feels he can keep her, though, is by killing her. Robert Browning's poem depicts the separation of social classes and describes the "triumph" of one man over an unjust society. As is often the case in fiction, the speaker of "Porphyria's Lover" does not give accurate information in the story.
In the poem “To His Coy Mistress”, the speaker is trying to seduce his wife. In the assumption the mistress is his wife; she is being bashful towards losing her virginity. The speaker, which is the mistress’s husband, develops a carefully constructed argument where the speaker seeks to persuade his lady to surrender her virginity to him.
In the poem Porphyria’s Lover, this desire for love is shown when Porphyria’s lover says, “Be sure I loo...
The poets integrated ?metaphysical conceits? as focal parts of these poems. Along with these, they used effective language as a basis for their convincing arguments, they included subjects of periodical importance (e.g. ?courtship? and ?religion?), and use very clever structures that are manipulated in order to make the poem read in the desired way. The very clear indication of the theme in question was strongly aided by the way in which the personas portrayed the emotions they felt and the way they showed their attitudes towards the subject. Considering all these factors, the poets made critical arguments to the mistresses in order to alter their views, thus changing their minds, on denying the poets the sex that they desired so strongly.
In ‘My Last Duchess,’ the speaker is conveyed as being controlling, arrogant, malicious, and capricious. The Duke shows signs of jealousy and over-protection towards his first wife. On the other hand, the narrator in ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ is portrayed as who has lost touch with reality, someone clearly insane. There a few hints that this character may be lonely and withdrawn. After Porphyria enters the room he is in, the tension immediately drops and the mood warms.
The overall gist of "To His Coy Mistress" is established in the opening stanza of the poem. It describes a sceneario where a girl has the option to either give in to the young persuaders sexua...
Two of the greatest masters of British literature, Shakespeare and Chaucer, tended to look to the classics when searching for inspiration. A lesser-known example of this lies in an ancient tale from Greece about two star-crossed lovers. There are many variations on the names of these lovers, but for the purpose of solidarity, they shall henceforth be referred to as “Troilus and Criseyde” for Chaucer and “Troilus and Cressida” for Shakespeare. Chaucer’s “Troilus and Criseyde” offers up a classic tale of love that is doomed, whereas Shakespeare’s “Troilus and Cressida” is not only tragic but also biting in its judgment and representation of characters. This difference may be due to the differences in time periods for the two authors, or their own personal dispositions, but there can be no denying the many deviations from Chaucer’s work that Shakespeare employs. Shakespeare’s work, by making the characters and situations more relatable, builds upon Chaucer’s original work, rather than improving it or shattering it.
Courtly love was a popular theme in literary works and poetry in thirteenth century Europe. Andreas Capellanus, chaplain to Marie de France and author of the classic The Art of Courtly Love defines courtly love as "...a certain inborn suffering derived from the sight of and excessive meditation upon the beauty of the opposite sex, which causes each one to wish above all things the embraces of the other and by common desire to carry out all of love's precepts in the other's embrace." In reality, courtly love was no more than an explicit court of rules for committing adultery. However, in literary works, the basis of chivalry became the presentation of lover's passion for one another and their consideration for others. I will be examining Geoffrey Chaucer's literary masterpiece, Troilus and Criseyde in light of this courtly love tradition.
The Victorian period was in 1830-1901, this period was named after Queen Victoria; England’s longest reigning monarch. Britain was the most powerful nation in the world. This period was known for a rather stern morality. A huge changed happened in England; factories were polluting the air, cities were bursting at the seams, feminism was shaking up society, and Darwin’s theory of evolution was assaulting long established religious beliefs. The Victorians were proud of their accomplishments and optimistic about the future, but psychologically there was tension, doubt, and anxiety as people struggled to understand and deal with the great changes they were experiencing. One of the authors known for writing during the Victorian Period was Robert Browning. Robert Browning was a poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic monologues, which made him one of the Victorian poets. Robert died in December 1889. His Poem “Porphyria’s Lover” was published in 1836. This essay will explore three elements of Victorianism in Porphyria’s Lover by Robert Brown...