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Comparing To his Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell and To his Mistress Going to Bed by John Donne

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Comparing To his Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell and To his Mistress Going to Bed by John Donne

In recent times I have compared and contrasted two pieces of love poetry, both of which are exceptionally lyrical and full of intellectual language that bring the poems alive with elaborated metaphors that compare dissimilar things, as they Inare equally, yet somehow individually both metaphysical poems. The first of these poems that I comprehended was 'To his Coy Mistress;' (written by Andrew Marvell during the 17th century), it reflects the epic of a man who is striving to entice a unadulterated woman into going to bed with him; he does this by using a lot of romantic flattery and surreal imagery, …show more content…

Perhaps the most famous of Marvell's lyrics is "To His Coy Mistress": Like many of Marvell's best poems, it masks extraordinary subtlety and complexity beneath a surface of smooth and deceptively simple octosyllabic couplets. It is, in fact, as perfect an example of the metaphysical mode as anything by Donne and, for all its cool and witty tone, and passionate lyrics.

John Donne, (1572-1631) is considered the greatest of all metaphysical poets. Donne was educated at Oxford, Cambridge and Lincoln's Inn. His works of this period, included some of his songs, sonnets (written as late as 1617), problems and paradoxes, which consisted of cynical, realistic and often sexual lyrics, essays and verse satires. Donne's court career was ruined by the discovery of his marriage in 1601 to Anne More and we also imprisoned for a short time; later in 1601, his poems became a lot more serious. After a long period of financial uncertainty and desperation, during which he was twice a member of Parliament, Donne yielded to the wishes of King James I and took orders in 1625. Two years later his wife died. He was made reader in divinity at Lincoln's inn, a royal chaplain, and in 1621 Dean of St. Paul', a position he held until his death.

Society in these time periods where very rigorous towards the issue of wedlock and divorce; the community would disapprove and condemn it very reprehensibly, and factors

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