Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress and John Donne's A Valedictorian: Forbidding Mourning

Marvell, Andrew. "To His Coy Mistress." The Hudson Book of Poetry: 150 Poems worth Reading. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002. 17-18.

Poetry in some way, shape or form, gives realistic ideas to even objects that reflect upon a part of life by using symbolism and personification.

In the poem, by Emily Dickinson, the speaker conveys multiple literary devices to show the complexity of the death of her friend on “The last night she lived.” The speaker utilizes juxtaposition in the first stanza in order to show an extreme pain towards the idea of death yet treat it as an understatement. Another emotion the speaker conveys through diction is how inevitable the death of her friend is, how she can do nothing about it other than be with her by her side. In the third stanza the speaker utilizes imagery when she talks about one room being filled with death and the other of those who will live. Lastly, the speaker facilitates diction to convey the jealousy for the woman who has died and no longer has to deal with emotions when she says,” A jealousy for her arose.” All of these emotions and actions all contribute to the complex attitude the speaker portrays in the poem.

While both Andrew Marvell in “To His Coy Mistress” and Robert Herrick in “To the Virgin to Make Much Time,” both poems express the same idea of Carpe Diem, Marvell wants his mistress to give into his seduction by persuading her with images of worms crawling inside of her and Herrick is asking all young women to deference the idea of embracing their sexuality and to enjoy beauty while one still has it.

Poetry is considered to be a representational text in which one explores ideas by using symbols. Poetry can be interpreted many different ways and is even harder to interpret when the original author has come and gone. Poetry is an incredible form of literature because the way it has the ability to use the reader as part of its own power. In other words, poetry uses the feelings and past experiences of the reader to interpret things differently from one to another, sometimes not even by choice of the author. Two famous poets come to mind to anybody who has ever been in an English class, Robert Frost and E.E. Cummings. Both of these poets have had numerous famous pieces due to the fact that they both

Diction is employed thoroughly in order to direct the connotations of the reader towards his views on death and to evoke contradicting meanings. This creates almost an emotive tone within the calming sound of the poem if it were to be read aloud. In turn this again demonstrates calmness and peace next to a generally disagreeable situation (death). For instance this is demonstrated with the recurrence of the line, “I have a rendezvous with Death.” The word, “rendezvous” coming

This composition contains several characteristics of a traditional love poem. But, if you analyze deeper into the poem, you may discover that “To Coy His Mistress” is more of a dramatic monologue. The speaker does all of the talking, which stamps the writing as a monologue. The rhetorician is conversing with his mistress, which defines the lyric as dramatic. Although, as the reader, you may identify with

Love can be quite a difficult topic to write about, expressing one’s intimate and innermost emotions requires a great level of dedication and honesty. If done correctly, the outcome is truly stunning. John Donne’s “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” and Katherine Philips’s “To Mrs. M.A. at Parting” are two masterpieces of this genre. These poems depict the concept of true love so meticulously that the reader cannot help but envy the relationships presented. Perhaps the reason that these works are so effective is due to the fact that they are incredibly similar to each other. Although some differences are present when it comes to structure and gender concerns, the poems share the same theme of love on a spiritual level and show many parallels in meaning.

John Donne’s ‘The Anniversary’ is all about the love the theoretical narrator and his object of love share. A year has passed, and everything has grown older, drawing closer to their end. In contrast, the one ageless thing is the unchanging love the poet shares with his lover. Although their bodies will be in separate

She suggests in the poem that it isn’t fair that the speaker gets to live, but this woman must die. This is presented in the third stanza when the speaker says,” And rooms were those to be alive, tomorrow were, a blame.” In the seventh stanza, the author in whole describes the amount of respect they have for their friend, carefully placing her head, and making the body look comfortable, and all in all hoping to make the death appear as peaceful as possible. This idea of respect can be related to guilt as for she is upset and feels guilty for why the speaker gets to live, and the only way to repay this guilt is to be as gentle and respectful to the woman’s last moments.

The narrator states, “Yet did I love thee to the last / As fervently as thou, / Who didst not change through all the past, / And canst not alter now...” (20-23) These stanzas help the reader understand how deeply the narrator loved this women. He is telling the reader that he loved her till the end of her days and will continue to love her. The narrator states, “The love where Death has set his seal, / Nor age can chill, nor rival steal, / Nor falsehood disavow…” (24-26) This meaning that death has forever sealed the narrator's love for this women and nothing can ever take that away, not when the narrator grows old nor another person can take his love away from

“A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,” by John Donne explores love through the ideas of assurance and separation. Donne uses vivid imagery to impart his moral themes on his audience. A truer, more refined love, Donne explains comes from a connection at the mind, the joining of two souls as one. Physical presence is irrelevant if a true marriage of the minds has occurred, joining a pair of lovers’ souls eternally.

Poetry is a varied art form. Poetry is expression with words, using aesthetics and definition. Word choice in poetry is the single most important thing. Devices such as assonance, alliteration and rhythm work in a poem to convey a certain image or to facilitate understanding. Similes and metaphors can take two unlike objects, such as a potato and cinderblock, and if done the correct way use them to describe how Abraham Lincoln dealt with scoundrels. Poetry is beautiful. One of the best genres in poetry, let alone a great literary movement is Romanticism or the post-enlightenment Romantics.

Poetry is literary work in which the expression of feelings and ideas is given intensity by the use of distinctive style and rhythm, poems collectively or as a genre of literature. It is also a quality of beauty and intensity of emotion regarded as characteristic of poems. Poetry (poem) is something that follows a particular flow of rhythm and meter. Compare to prose, where there is no such restriction, and the content of the piece flows according to the story, a poem may or may not have a story, but definitely has structured method of writing.

In this essay I will mainly focus on two poems written by John Donne, The Rising Sun and Death be not proud. These poems were written during the Elizabethan era, which was an era mainly characterized by love and colonialism, on separate terms of course. These principles often influenced poets who lived during this period. Their poetry acts as testimonies of their underlying thoughts and desires. Furthermore, metaphysical poets deliver a more divine and profound perspective to their poetry. Within their conceits, they manage to engage and delight themselves in deeper movements. This essay will further discuss how John Donne used death and the sun to his disposal. I will also critically analyse the two poems as well grasp on external aspects