Compare the way Andrew Marvell and William King present relationships

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Compare the way Andrew Marvell and William King present relationships

between men and women in To His Coy Mistress and The Beggar Women.

If we look at the 2 poems we can see some quite significant

similarities between them about the relationships between men and

women. We see in both poems the desire for sex from the two men, but

both attempt to acquire it through different methods due to the

difference in class between the women.

First we must look at the difference in forms of the two poems. To His

Coy Mistress is a dramatic monologue and so we can therefore see the

narrator's attitude towards the lady he is trying to seduce. The

Beggar Women is a ballad (so it is telling a story) this means that

you can find a moral to the story; however, you are unable to see the

attitude of the 'gentlemen' towards the women as easily.

I both poems we see that neither of the men have much respect for the

women. In The Beggar Women we see that the 'gentlemen' views the women

very low which is perhaps given the historical context of the poem. In

the poem he refers to her as "game", comparing her to the animals he

was hunting, almost saying that she isn't considered important enough

to be human. It then says, "her cheeks were fresh, and linen clean"

which may suggest that the situation is not what it seems. In To His

Coy Mistress we also see the narrator has little respect for the lady;

however in this poem it seems quite unnecessary because she is a

respectable lady. He mocks her for being a virgin - her "quaint

honour" but in those times being virginal was the only way for a women

to maintain a good reputation.

In The Beggar Women the initial rhyming scheme is "rhyming couplets".

The pattern deteriorates as the beggar woman begins to take control

over the situation without the man realising. In To His Coy Mistress,

if we look at the rhythm of the first 4 lines, it is in iambic

quatrametre. This is a very powerful rhythm and may reflect just how

hard the narrator is trying to seduce the women.

In both poems there is also the obvious similarity of the men's one

desire of sex and nothing else and how much they will do to achieve

this. To His Coy Mistress shows the narrator taking a kind and adoring

approach to getting the lady into bed with him in the first part of

the poem (up to line 20). In this part he uses time as a positive

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