To His Coy Mistress

The image of the holy trinity to the lover would have been a strong point, but the ex... ... middle of paper ... ...gth into one ball;/ And tear our pleasures with rough strife” (To His Coy Mistress, 41-42). The seducer’s argument is blunt and straight to the point. He tells her that while they are still youthful, they should have sex. After his other arguments, the man might be able to convince the lady, through flattery and trust. When compared with “The Flea,” “To His Coy Mistress” seduction techniques are much more refined and well thought out.

Although Marvell may not be able to stop time, their lovemaking can make time run from the fury of their passion. Marvell attempts to persuade his conquest with a focus on death through the imagery of ashes and time. “Then worms shall try/That long-preserved virginity, And your quaint honor turn to dust,” (Marvell 28-29). This exaggerated image is used to encourage the young mistress to give her virginity rather than see the silliness in seen worms as a threat to her out of date female genitals in her grave. His pleas fall on deaf ears as we do not hear from the side of the woman.

The first stanza of the poem establishes the one-sided conversation between the speaker and his love interest. He immediately introduces the flea and the action that precedes this conversation by referencing the flea having bitten both himself and her. The word ch... ... middle of paper ... ... a clear statement regarding the loss of her virginity to him. It doesn’t, however, take into account her own personal feelings, and is a bold conclusion to the argumentative approach he has taken. Despite the speaker’s best attempt at convincing the woman to have sexual relations with him through his metaphor of the flea, he would appear to be unsuccessful at the end of the poem.

Using this choice of words like “then worms shall try” and “…turn to dust”, the speaker essentially tells his mistress that there will be consequences if she does not engage with him. He believes his wit will gain control over his mistress, and her “coyness” will inevitably disappear. In his mind, the repercussions are if she dies without having sex with him, the worms will take her virginity, which can be considered as phallic imagery. In the lines, the worms symbolically mirror the narrator’s male sexual organ. Marvell creates an interesting approach with this daring and disturbing language because the appealing strategy grasps the reader’s attention and explores the question of the extent a person will go to fulfill their sexual desires.

His wording in this poem tries to convince this lady that their blood has already mingle in this flea, so they should just make love. However, the woman he is trying to seduce thought he is out of his mind and kills the flea. The reader can see that he is trying to make excuses to make love to her. Donne keeps saying that their love making will not be looked down upon, which it will. Donne says in the poem, “A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead, / Yet this enjoys before it woo, / And pampered swells with one blood made of two, / And this, alas, is more than we would do”

Marvell presents a case that few women could deny, but he quickly turns the flattery into a disguised threat. The compliments he pays to his lover promptly evaporate because of his efforts to convince her to have sex. In the first stanza Marvell expresses his desire to spend all the time in the world to admire her beauty, but in the second stanza Marvell communicates his true intent. The second stanza displays the briefness of life and the brevity of beauty. Instead of using time to glorify his mistress, Marvell manipulates time against her beauty.

(prof. zichy. Lecture) When the tone of the second stanza shifts towards a serious note, the man begins threatening the poor woman with images of “worms shall try That long-preserved virginity”. The change of tine from playful to threatening makes the speaker look extremely foolish. He does not realize these threats may potentially scare the lady away from him thus contradicting his seduction prior. Even though the speaker of “To His Coy Mistress” has an intense fear of growing old, he does have a few valid points of interest in his attempted seduction.

Finally, he tries to prove that once she yields to his seduction she will have lost no more honour than when she killed the flea. First, the speaker argues that participating in sexual acts with him would be no more sinful than the bite of a flea because the flea has bitten them both and now their blood is mingled within the flea representing their union. He compares the tiny flea to the sex that she is denying him: “Mark but this flea, and mark in this/ How little that which thou deny'st me is” (1-2), implying that what she is denying him is trivial or insignificant. The speaker then demonstrates that the mixing of their blood within the flea is not a sin, nor shame, nor loss of virginity: “Thou know'st that this cannot be said/ A sin, nor sham, nor loss of maidenhead” (5-6). He is insinuating that having sex with him would not be a sin either because it is nothing more then the mixing bodily fluids.

The difference here, between the two poems, is that Donne is saying that they’ve already had sex in the flea, and therefore the whole affair is no longer a big deal, while Marvell is suggesting a sense of... ... middle of paper ... ...erious note than Marvell, however, by using some strong biblical imagery to show his mistress that, by killing the flea she has committed a sin and, if she realises this, she has shown that she feels intercourse is no big deal. Overall, I feel that, rather than being “love” poems, these are both superficial examples of love, which are actually implicated on lust and seduction. A factor which supports this theory is that Donne doesn’t even mention love throughout the entire course of his poem, while Marvell uses love to show the extent of his feelings for his mistress and, even then, admits that it is merely vegetable love, which is a basic concept of love being no more than reproduction, and therefore sex. I feel that Marvell’s poem can also, however, be associated with making the most of life, as he clearly argues this point in “To his Coy Mistress.”

The man in “THCM” is more romantic as he takes the time to admire and appreciate the woman “An hundred years should go to praise Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze.” Whereas in “The seduction” He doe... ... middle of paper ... ...of nicotine.” I think this definitely comes across during the poems, and is a clear difference. In conclusion it is clear that both are poems are about a man seducing a woman in the hope that she will sleep with him. I believe the biggest difference between the poems is to do with the date when they were written. Both time eras had completely different attitudes to sex, which is why the men go about a different way to seduce the women The poem that I find more persuasive and effective is “THCM” because the man actually loved the lady ”I would love you ten years before the flood” and his intentions were slightly more pure it seems, compared to the man in “the seduction” who simply took advantage of the woman and didn’t care for her one bit. I also think that it is very cleverly written and is interesting how each stanza represents a different time frame.