Love in HJohn Donne´s A Valediction Forbidding Mourning and Andrew Marvell´s To His Coy Mistress

Some of the most analyzed aspects of emotion and the life, by literary greats throughout the past several centuries, have been the issue of death and the physical, spiritual, and emotional attachments that can be defined as love. Even though writers of prose and poetry have long belabored these two specific areas of discussion, the depth and diversity in approach is something that can only be described with regards to the differential between personalities and the world you of the author in question. Accordingly, the following analysis will be concentric upon discussing and analyzing the approach and understanding of love that two specific poets exhibit within their respective work. The first of these poets that will be analyzed is John Donne in his poem “A valediction forbidding Mourning”. Likewise, the second which will be analyzed is Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress”. Even though these two points were written in roughly the same timeframe, the key differential which will be analyzed is with regards to the way in which the respective authors understand love and somewhat of an asymmetrical manner. As will be discussed within the preceding analysis, John Donne’s point focuses upon love existing outside of the con strains of time whereas Andrew Marvell’s point focuses upon the immediacy, urgency, and physical necessity of love existing within the very moment. Through an analysis and discussion of these facts, it is the hope of this author that the reader will gain a more informed understanding with respect to the way in which love was understood in different ways by different authors; even within the same era.

Firstly, with regards to Andrew Marvell’s poem, “To His Coy Mistress”, the reader can quickly come to understand th...

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...at Marvell’s poem is predicated entirely upon lust and the physical concept of love, it would be fair to say that as compared to John Donne’s:, Marvell’s is uniquely more focused upon the physical definition of love and the manner through which the poet is able to engage with it. By means of comparison, the lack of immediacy that is referenced with regards to John Donne’s point helps to evoke the understanding of a more spiritual definition for the love he shares for the woman described within the poem. Rather than denoting which particular approach is more effective or analyzing the understanding or belief that love that exists outside of time is the higher and nobler approach, the differential that has thus far been discussed and analyzed is helpful in denoting only the approach that these two respective authors took with regards to the subject matter at hand.