A Comparison of Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress and John Donne's The Sunne Rising
Both poems "To His Coy Mistress" and "The Sunne Rising" were written
by metaphysical poets, this is one of many similarities in the poems.
However, there are also a number of differences between them.
In both poems, there is an obvious link to the theme of "Carpe Diem"
which simply means "seize the day". The poems relate to time and that
of how it's running out. They seem to be in a rush.
The content of the poem is Marvell writing a poem to his love partner.
They are truly in love with each other and their love is very
passionate for one another. However, there is something missing in
their relationship and that is the sexual side. They haven't had
sexual intercourse and the poem is about Marvell trying to persuade
his partner into making love to him. He feels that time is running out
and that they should "seize the moment". The life expectancy was at a
lower rate in the times of the poem, and he doesn't want to leave
things too late. There were many types of diseases in those days, with
health services very limited. Today, our life expectancy is on average
77, however, in those days anyone who reached the age of 40 was
considered as an older-aged person. He obviously feels that his
partner needs a slight push into making love; he shows this by calling
her his "Coy Mistress", which means his shy or reluctant woman.
The poem is split into three paragraphs, which is unusual for poems.
These three paragraphs state the three stages of argument. The first
part is trying o say that if they had all the time in the world, then
he wouldn't need to wr...
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... can make you feel happy, but love is more important in
life. Money can be liked but never loved like true beauty.
I believe it's imperative that we look at the poems from a different
perspective. Both compliment the women mentioned but both have
different messages. "To His Coy Mistress" is a persuasive poem which
contains flattery to try and convince the woman to take their
relationship to the next level. In "The Sunne Rising", the message is
that love is more important than wealth. The main themes are time and
love and both are conveyed very cleverly with both wit and deception.
I enjoyed both poems as they both showed sound comparisons and true
feelings. I preferred the poem by Andrew Marvell as it had a sense of
urgency and it was rhythmic to which I found exciting as I never knew
what to expect next in the poem.
Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. A. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
Then he goes onto say that in an ideal world one would have time to go
Damrosch, David, and Dettmar Kevin, eds. The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Vol. 2A. Boston: Longman, 2010. Print.
*Abrams, M.H., ed., et al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth Edition. Vol.I. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1993.
Naturally two books related to each other in this way have their similarities and differences in certain areas. Most of the similarities between both books fall in the areas of historical correctness and act...
M.H. Abrams, et al; ed., The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Sixth Edition, Volume I. W.W. Norton & Company, New York/London, 1993.
Abrams, MH, et al. Eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1993.
just enough to keep on the right side of her until he gets what he
Abrams, M.H. and Greenblatt, Stephen eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Seventh Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001.
Abrams, M.H., et al. ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. 2 Vols. New York: Norton, 1993.
Murphy, B. & Shirley J. The Literary Encyclopedia. [nl], August 31, 2004. Available at: http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2326. Access on: 22 Aug 2010.
Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress To His Coy Mistress: This Seventeenth Century poem by Andrew Marvell
Abrams, M.H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 1993.
Abrams, M. H., et al., The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 1986.