Comparing Two Poems Essay

In both poems there is the recurrent theme of irony. In “To His Coy Mistress” the poem’s entire first section is ironic in the sense that the speaker knows he isn’t being genuine. The speaker uses words to his advantage and we can take little of what he says to be truthful. In Line 1, “Had we but world enough, and time”. The first section of the poem is a series of hyperbolic statements meant to impress and flatter the reader but the

Dawn revisited is a poem about the new ideas one could have in life and how it is easy to start again if things don’t go too well, as the poem starts with ‘imagine you wake up with a second chance’ which automatically introduces the topic to the reader. The poem is laid-out in a way that – especially ‘hawks his pretty wares’ - gives us an unimaginable image of the beauty of dawn, a description that would want people to manage their time in order to see it. The poet states ‘if you don’t look back the future never happens’ which shows us that one could only learn by making mistakes and that she perhaps learnt from experience and does not want people to miss out on the beauty of nature just like she might have done previously. She suggests

The Flea and To His Coy Mistress are two poems written by poets living during the Renaissance Period. To His Coy Mistress was written by Andrew Marvell and The Flea was written by John Donne. Both of these poets were well-educated 'metaphysical poets', and these poems illustrate metaphysical concerns, highly abstract and theoretical ideas, that the poets would have been interested in. Both poems are based around the same idea of trying to reason with a 'mistress' as to why they should give up their virginity to the poet.

First off both poems use many different metaphors to explain how love feels to them. These metaphors help to relate to the theme as it helps the reader sort of visualize what the poet was thinking when they wrote the poem and helps the reader to get a better grasp and understanding of the theme. Both poems also believe in the fact that love is unstoppable. In the poem “Heart to Heart” there is a line where after the speaker explains how love can be hard the speaker then says that “I want I want- but I can’t open it” (Dove 21), which is basically saying that the speaker can’t get away from love and wants it but is having trouble getting through all the complexity of it. This theme also comes up in “What Love Isn’t” as throughout the poem the speaker talks about the negatives and difficulties of love but always adds how it is good and nutritious which is saying that the goods of love can’t be stopped and that love is

The former poem is to do with racial prejudice and the latter is to do

“Whoso List to Hunt” by Sir Thomas Wyatt and “Sonnet 67” by Edmund Spenser are sonnets that are very similar at a first glance, but delving deeper, a difference can be found. Both of these sonnets use imagery and figures of speech relating to the hunt of an unobtainable woman as well as that central theme. Through a deeper analysis it is revealed that these two authors have a different interpretation of this failed hunt. A comparison and contrast of “Whoso List to Hunt” and “Sonnet 67” reveals that they are very similar through the analysis of their imagery and theme, but a look at the tone, reveals a different view on the problems faced in by these two speakers.

The writers of “To His Coy Mistress” and “Coy Mistress” use poetic devices such as tone and imagery to create contrasting themes. Andrew Marvell, the writer of “To His Coy Mistress”, wrote the poem persuasively, while Annie Finch, the author of “Coy Mistress”, wrote her poem as a rebuttal to his persuasions, therefore contrasting each other in many ways.

To begin, both of the husbands do not have the ability to control their emotions. The widower in “My Last Duchess” always believed that his wife was too happy around other men. His duchess treated her husband and any other man, the same exact way. The husband was very upset, and hired an assassin to kill his own loving wife. In “Porphyria’s Lover” the husband is so melancholy, he believes that his wife is going to leave him. He decides that he wants his wife to be with him forever, as the wife is being strangled with her own yellow hair. She was perfect for him, and that’s why he had to kill her to keep her his forever. Obviously, the husbands in these poems had gone crazy.

The poem “How Do I Love Thee”, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed”, by Edna Vincent Millay are both well-known poems that both have themes of love. (LIT, Kirszner & Mandell, Pg. 490). In both poems the poet helps the reader experience a lot of emotion with the use of certain words. There are speakers in both poems. In Mrs. Browning’s poem, the speaker is undefined, leaving open that the speaker could be a he or she. Millay’s poem which is written in first person, the speaker is more defined leading the reader to believe it is a she who is talking about love in the past tense. Both poems are sonnets written with fourteen lines, and written in Italian style. When comparing these poems we will be looking at the use of rhyme scheme and metaphors and how they were used to express emotions in these two sonnet poems.

The poem To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell, speaks to his coy mistress about how time is rapidly passing and he wishes her to reciprocate his feelings along with sexual desires. In this poem I feel like Marvell is also talking to the reader and encouraging them to act upon their desires. Ultimately live life to the fullest because time is running out. This poem is all about Carpe Diem with a satirical aspect on love. Essentially Marvell is trying to get this mistress to sleep with him. He wants her to abandon her false modesty and give in to his requests, so that all his problems can be fixed with sex.

Poets are famous for their sweet love poems, or better yet lust poems. Poetry has a way of making even the worst stories sound lovely. The way the words roll off your tongue can fool even the smartest off readers. The hidden meanings are buried within the literary devices that poets use. In Andrew Marvell’s poem “To His Coy Mistress” there are plenty of hidden messages buried in the literary devices, but before we start digging in the lines of the poem let us think about what is going on in the poem to be able to fully understand the meaning.

Both poems share a story of a type of love, one is a love for numerous people front their past and the other is a love for someone who was very close and dear to their heart that died. In both poems, they each felt grief. Another similarity share in each is that the characters do not feel that they will feel love again. The two poems used many different symbols to express a deeper meaning of their grief. Both characters arrive at the same conclusion when reflecting on the ones they loved; a life lived without meaning is

While ‘hour’ presents feelings of more romantic love, ‘To his coy mistress’, presents the idea of a more physical love. But both poems are based upon many of the same ideas, but are shown in different ways. For example the ideas of Nature, sense of greed, sense of time moving too quickly and a sense realistic love.

This shows how optimistic he is about his relationship getting stronger. The two poems both follow the theme of love but have two extremely different tones. One is very confident whereas the other is more hopeful.

To His Coy Mistress by Marvell, Death Be Not Proud by Donne, and Easter Wings by Herbert are poems that have similar and different aspects to each other. For instance, Easter Wings and Death Be Not Proud are similar because both refer to God, as well as life or death. To His Coy Mistress has no relationship to God, but has a relationship between love and lust. However, To His Coy Mistress is similar to Death Be Not Proud due to the mention of death or dying in each poem.