Throughout the poems “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell and “The Rights of Woman” by Anna Letitia Barbauld, violence is used in contrasting ways. Marvell uses violence to manipulate his mistress into a powerless position, while Barbauld uses it to incite rebellion against just such a power structure.Though violence is not the primary thematic concern within the majority of both works, it plays an essential role in developing the storyline and helps to convey the messages of the authors. Within Marvell’s piece, the speaker describes a timeless love that is not reciprocated. Barbauld, as one might assume from the title, challenges the role of women in an ambitious, powerful manner. Throughout both pieces, violence becomes evident when the speakers use various types of diction while emphasizing the juxtaposition of similar sounding words.
Violence and love are often the result of intense passion, and this is no exception within Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress”. The speaker is clearly infatuated with a woman, the subject of the poem, and he believes that these feelings should be reciprocated. This is made clear when the speaker states,
For, lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.
But at my back I always hear
Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near (19-22).
In this, the speaker means to convey his dedication to this woman. He fears, however, that her tendency to be coy will not allow them to be together before the “wingèd chariot”(22) carries him up into the afterlife. Though the speaker believes his affection to be undying, stating that, “nor would I love at lower rate”, he fears that time will not allow them to be together, unless she eliminates this part of her personality. This point is emphasized fur...
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... based on gender are unimportant because mutual love renders all differences equal. Marvell, through his poem, To His Coy Mistress, approaches violence in a slightly different manner. The speaker uses the threat of violence as a last resort to convince his coy mistress to lay with him. Though both poems use violence, they start and end at opposite ends of the spectrum. Barbauld begins with violence and ends with love, Marvell travels down the same path, but in the opposite direction.
Works Cited
Barbauld, Anna Letitia. "The Rights of Woman." The Norton Anthology Of English Literature. The Major Authors Ninth ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. 1444. Print.
Marvell, Andrew. "To His Coy Mistress." The Norton Anthology Of English Literature. The Major Authors Ninth ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. 751. Print.
Woolstoncraft, Mary. A Vindication of The Rights of Woman. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. 3rd Ed. Volume D. Ed. Martin Puchner. New York: Norton, 2013. 134-136. Print.
In all, the misogyny presented in these two poems is not restricted to the time period they were written. Just as in medieval literature, it is still common for today's woman to be recognized only for her physical attributes. I believe that in order to have equality of the sexes and to help overcome the objectifying of women, it is necessary for women not to use the misogynistic views placed against them to their advantage.
In the second stanza, Marvell turns his attention to another “problem” that his lover might pose by not sleeping with him. He writes, “But at my back I always hear/ Times winged chariot hurrying near” (21-22). Marvell is concerned about death in this situation. He is now pleading to his woman because he feels threatened by time. He tells her that time is running out and that they had better sleep together before it is too late. Marvell solidifies this argument a few lines later by presenting the idea of death and the fact that they can not have sexual intercourse once they are dead. He writes, “The grave’s a fine and private place/ But none, I think, do there embra...
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
...seful miscommunication between men and women. Lastly, when looking through the imagined perspective of the thoughtless male tricksters, the reader is shown the heartlessness of men. After this reader’s final consideration, the main theme in each of the presented poems is that both authors saw women as victims of a male dominated society.
The tone of “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” and “To His Coy Mistress” are different. In Herrick’s poem, his tone is relaxed. For instance when he writes, “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, /Old times is still a-flying,” his word choice has a very relaxed and casual tone. His attitude reflects the relaxed tone in his poem. In Marvell’s poem, his tone is serious. Marvell’s purpose is to persuade his mistress to have sex with him. He tries to lure her in when saying, “Had we but World enough, and Time.” He starts out very seriously, in attempt to convince his mistress. The relaxed tone of “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” and serious tone of “To His Coy Mistress” point out the difference in the way the writers feel about their characters.
Abrams, M.H. and Greenblatt, Stephen eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Seventh Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001.
The speaker continues to argue that time is not in favor of his mistress’s nervousness or his age. For instance, he says, “But at my back I always hear time’s winged chariot hurrying near” (lines 21 and 22). In other words, he is saying his time is running out quickly. There can be many reasons why his time is running short, but according to the poem there is one reason he could be in a rush to make love with his mistress. The speaker says, “And yonder all before us lie deserts of vast eternity” (lines 23 and 24). “Deserts of vast eternity” (line 24) expresses his concern of not being able to have children, which would make him sterile. As men age, their sperm count becomes less and less, which makes conceiving a child nearly impossible.
The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth Edition Volume1. Ed. M.H.Abrams. New York: W.W.Norton and Company, Inc., 1993.
There is a similar theme running through both of the poems, in which both mistresses are refusing to partake in sexual intercourse with both of the poets. The way in which both poets present their argument is quite different as Marvell is writing from a perspective from which he is depicting his mistress as being 'coy', and essentially, mean, in refusing him sex, and Donne is comparing the blood lost by a flea bite to the blood that would be united during sex. Marvell immediately makes clear his thoughts in the poem when he says, "Had we but world enough, and time/ This coyness, Lady were no crime", he is conveying the 'carpe diem' idea that there is not enough time for her to be 'coy' and refuse him sexual intercourse and he justifies this thought when he suggests when she is dead, in ?thy marble vault?, and ?worms shall try that long preserved virginity?. He is using the idea of worms crawling all over and in her corpse as a way of saying that the worms are going to take her virginity if she waits until death. Donne justifies his bid for her virginity in a much longer and more methodical way, he uses the idea of the flea taking her blood and mixing it with his, ?It suck?d me first, and now sucks thee?, and then...
Response to His Coy Mistress Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" is the charming depiction of a man who has seemingly been working very hard at seducing his mistress. Owing to Marvell's use of the word "coy," we have a clear picture of the kind of woman his mistress is. She has been encouraging his advances to a certain point, but then when he gets too close, she backs off, and resists those same advances. Evidently, this has been going on for quite some time, as Marvell now feels it necessary to broach the topic in this poem. He begins in the first stanza by gently explaining that his mistress's coyness would not be a "crime" if there were "world enough, and time…" (l.2).
In Andrew Marvell's poem "To His Coy Mistress," he's arguing for affection. The object of the speaker's desire wants to wait and take the relationship slow, while the speaker pushes for instant gratification. This persuasive poem makes the point that time waits for no one and it's foolish for two lovers to postpone a physical relationship.
Marvell uses many images that work as tools to express how he wishes to love his mistress in the first stanza of the poem. From line 1 to 20 Marvell tells his mistress how he wishes he had all the time in the world to love her. In the very first line Marvell brings up the focus of time, “Had we but world enough and time/This coyness, lady, were no crime”. The second line shows the conflict that the author is facing in the poem, her coyness. Marvell continues from these initial lines to tell his mistress what he would do if he had enough time. In lines, three and four Marvell talks of “sitting down” to “think” where they will walk on their “long love’s day”. All of these word...
Throughout literature’s history, female authors have been widely recognized for their groundbreaking and eye-opening accounts of what it means to be a woman in society. In most cases of early literature, women are portrayed as weak and unintelligent characters who rely solely on their male counterparts. Also during this time period, it would be shocking to have women characters in some stories, especially since their purpose is only secondary to that of the male protagonist. But, in the late 17th to early 18th century, a crop of courageous women began publishing their works, beginning the literary feminist movement. Together, Aphra Behn, Charlotte Smith, Fanny Burney, and Mary Wollstonecraft challenge the status quo of what it means to be a woman during the time of the Restoration Era and give authors and essayists of the modern day, such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a platform to become powerful, influential writers of the future.
Structure, a major tool stressed in this poem, tends to rearrange the text in a large-scale way. In "To His Coy Mistress", the reader should focus on the most significant types of structure: stanza and temporal. In other words, time and chronological order assemble the whole meaning of the text throughout the poem. Although the story contains seduction and intimacy, which is portrayed in the title alone, it is merely a cry for two lovers to be together before time runs out. Temporally, the man first explains to the woman how he would love her if he only had the time. The man's sincerity is truly expressed when Marvell writes, "Had we but world enough, and time...I would love you ten years before the flood...nor would I love at lower rate," (373: 1, 7-8, 20). It seems that the man genuinely cares for the lady, or is he secretly seducing her into bed? Taking a look at the second stanza...