Emphasizing The True Meaning Of Poems By Andrew Marvell And John Donne 's A Valediction : Forbidding Mourning

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

‘To His Coy Mistress’ has a particularly strong theme of Time. One of the main ideas involved is that you must to savour what you have in the moment because everything expires and dies eventually. It is also a very physical poem, focusing on visual attraction rather than 'pure' love. It is also a sexual poem, trying to pressurize a partner into sex.

Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress is a sieze the moment kind of poem in which an anonomyous young man tries to woo the hand of his mistress. This kind of poem gives the reader the idea that time is not only precious, but scarce. The speaker uses many smooth tatics to persuade the young girl, starting with compliments and ending with a more forceful, morbid appraoch. "To His Coy Mistress" is not only witty but imgagistic, full of wordplay, and percieved differently by both males and females.

“A Valediction: Forbidden Mourning” is a poem about a couple on the eve of their separation. The speaker is trying to convince his lady to accept his departure by describing love as something that transcends the physical and therefore can endure or even grow through separation. John Donne makes three main points throughout the poem. He informs the reader that the love he and his partner share is beyond a normal love, that their love is strengthened in absence, and that he compares their love to twin compasses.

For centuries poets have laid out their emotions in their poetry, attempting to understand love and the feelings that accompany it. With the tradition of courtly love spreading across Europe, twelfth century poetry was filled with depictions of love for a lady. Similarities and differences can be seen in these European poets’ approach to love, especially when it comes to dealing with rejection. Bernard de Ventadorn’s poem, “When I see the Lark,” and Reinmar der Alte’s poem, “Let no suffering lover come to me for any help,” differ in their views of reproach, yet they still arrive at the same conclusion: the rejection of all women.

“The Flea” and “A Valediction” are poems by John Donne that were written in the 17th Century. These poems incorporate the fundamental of something called a metaphysical conceit. Interesting though, both poems use the metaphysical conceit to tell a story about two very opposite situation between two “partners”. “The Flea’s” metaphysical conceit is stretched along a lustful, passionate, relationship between two individuals. “A Valediction’s” metaphysical conceit follows Donne asking his wife to be calm about his leaving rather than grieving about it. The poet cleverly hides the true meaning of the poem encouraging his readers to conduct closer readings and find the implicit details for themselves. We see in both these poems how the metaphysical conceit is played out to tell two different stories and represent two very different situations between two partners, whether they be husband and wife, or man and mistress.

In his poem, “To His Coy Mistress” by Marvell, the initial tribute by the speaker to his beloved is an imitation of the extreme expressions in Petrarchan conventions that had been adopted by poets of the Renaissance era such as Wyatt and Sydney (Delahoyde 2017).Yet unlike these poets, Marvell persuades and then assumes sexual control over the mistress rather than falter in his act of seduction. The poet writes in a syllogistic form that he develops in a stringently logical manner, which ultimately leads to a distinct conclusion. However, it is worth noting that the syllogism in the poem is defined by a theory that is male oriented and it is through this lens that the issues of time and opportunity are interwoven and messaged in this poem. In essence, the speaker tells us that if the two potential lovers lived forever, maintaining virginity would be appropriate; but they do not live forever, therefore they should engage in sexual activity and all the carnal delights it brings (Halli 2001). It is this focus on wanton lust and desire, rather than romance or love that objectifies women in general, but more specifically, to the eponymous woman in this poem.

Love is shown vividly in both ‘Song’ by Lady Mary Wroth and ‘She was a Phantom of Delight’ by William Wordsworth. However, despite the similar theme of it, the portrayal of love in both poems is distinctively different. Wroth’s depiction of love is the satirical form her husband is willing to offer her. In contrast, Wordsworth writes about a pleasant, praising love that develops over time.

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.

Andrew Marvell wrote a unique love poem in “To His Coy Mistress,” as this poem expresses far more than one might expect or even perceive upon the first reading. Enveloped in this ode to a cherished muse are expressions of the “carpe diem” philosophy, laments about the impending doom of death, and hopes to transcend contemporary abilities to live forever in the love of another. While Marvell’s primary purpose in writing this piece may have been to woo a young maiden, he made a far more significant contribution to the era’s literary culture in the process.

Just as Ariosto combines poetic imagery with astrological concepts, John Donne similarly applies metaphysical conceits which have similar esoteric characteristics. A Valediction of Weeping reads initially as a lovers parting onto 'diverse shore[s]', and with their separation comes the speaker's tears which bear the face of their love. Yet, the weeping the lovers endure within Donne's sonnet shifts away from the Petrarchan display of weeping towards an application of the idea of tears being a form of philosophical consideration. Within Donne's poetry, the tears become 'pregnant', evoking gestational imagery; this unites the notion of the moon as a symbol of fertility with the swelling roundness of the woman being somewhat planetary. Similarly,

“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe and “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by Sir Walter Raleigh are two of numerous, prominent poems in the late sixteenth century. Both were written between 1590 and 1600, however, the exact years for each are somewhat ambiguous. Raleigh’s “The Passionate Shepherd . . . ” is classified as a pastoral poem due to its depiction of a natural setting and is also considered to be perhaps the most famous of all English pastoral works. Likewise, it is a carpe diem poem given its advocation to “seize the day” and to “live life to the fullest extent”—which often implied care-free, sexual behaviors. Conversely, there exists many sequels to it, the most relevant being Marlowe’s “The Nymph’s Reply . . . “ Marlowe’s speaker claims that the recipient should live with him so that they may pursue a variety of romantic activities. However, Raleigh’s speaker is significantly less optimistic and states that nothing is eternal, all shall succumb to aging, and that they would only live with him if life had no boundaries of time.

When John Donne’s collection of poetry, Songs and Sonnets, was published in 1633 it was established as a piece of literature that would transcend the ages, containing wit, experimentation and creativity. However, once the years furthered into the late nineteenth century and the audience of Donne’s work grew outside of the usual collective of male readers, a new perspective took shape. These ideas did not dismiss the change Donne’s work brought to his genre but rather questioned the attitude towards his genders counterpart within the poetry. A feministic approach emerged with the acknowledgement that Donne’s views revealed sexist when analyzed. Such concepts are discussed within George Parfitt’s John Donne as the novel considers Donne’s opinions along with it’s relation to his history. This wave of feministic criticism is exhibited when Parfitt examines the belief that John’s work narrows women into a set group and observes that “as a category women are objects of Donne’s wit and of interest only in that respect.” (32). During the poet’s life he became a part of the courts where Donne preached during his time as a priest in 1615 until his death. This setting allowed for little connection with women outside his wife and other lower class women as it was an all male institution, thus his understanding of the female mind exterior from these instances did not hold validity. Parfitt comments that “the excluded sex [was] both idealised and denigrated,” (30) in said environments.

John Donne, whose poetic reputation languished before he was rediscovered in the early part of the twentieth century, is remembered today as the leading exponent of a style of verse known as “metaphysical poetry,” which flourished in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. (Other great metaphysical poets include Andrew Marvell, Robert Herrick, and George Herbert.) Metaphysical poetry typically employs unusual verse forms, complex figures of speech applied to elaborate and surprising metaphorical conceits, and learned themes discussed according to eccentric and unexpected chains of reasoning. Donne’s poetry exhibits each of these characteristics.

John Donne is the author of “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”. The poem was written in 1611. John Donne wrote the poem before he left his wife to go on a trip to France. The purpose of the poem was to provide his wife comfort, to tell her that lovers should not be saddened by the temporary departure of the other because no matter how far apart they are, they are still connected. The love that the lovers have for each other allows them to endure challenges such as long distance, allowing them to stay together. The poem shows idealistic spiritual love. Donne gets his message through in a simple and effective manner by using several metaphysical conceits, a simple meter and rhyme scheme, and by using precise word choice to provide soothing imagery.