Comparing Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 with To his Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell

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Comparing Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 with To his Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell

I will be comparing two poems, ‘Shall I Compare Thee…?’ with ‘To His

Coy Mistress’, I will examine the purposes of each poem and the

techniques used by the two poets to convey ideas and to achieve

purposes. Sonnet 18 was written by William’s Shakespeare between 1564

and 1616. The poem ‘To his Coy Mistress’ was written by Andrew

Marvell.

The Purposes of the two poems are different, the purpose of Sonnet 18

is for Shakespeare to write this poem for a girl or woman he likes, to

praise her by comparing her to wonderful things in life, such a

Summer, also to grant her immortality through lines of the poem;

meaning as long as the poem will exist and be read, the girl (who the

poem is to) will continue to exist. Shakespeare therefore does not

want anything from the girl in the poem. The purpose and central

message of ‘To His Coy Mistress’ is about a man wanting to have sex

with a woman he likes and trying to persuade the woman to loose her

virginity to him because time is running out. Therefore we recognise

that Marvell wants something from the woman in the poem this makes the

poem more argumentative.

The titles of the two poems, gives an insight of what the poem is

about, ‘Shall I Compare Thee…?’, this tells the reader that the poem

is addressed to someone, this may make the poem more interesting to

read and ‘To His Coy Mistress’ meaning ‘To His Girl’, this tells us

that Marvell has addressed the poem to a specific girl or woman.

Throughout the poem ‘To His Coy Mistress’, Marvell uses time and space

to persuade the girl to have sex with him. Marvell also relates death

to having sex, he uses words such as ‘Grave’, ‘ashes’, ‘du...

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...he poem ‘To his Coy Mistress’ there are Rhyming couplets, but

there are few syllable Patterns, for example the first four lines;

line one has eight syllables; line two has seven syllables; line three

has eight syllables and line four has seven syllables.

The sound and Rhythm of the two poems contrast. Sonnet 18 sound and

rhythm is slow, calm, and soothing, whilst THCM is speedy, aggressive

and frantic. There is repetition used in Sonnet 18 in line two;

‘Thou art more lovely and more temperate’

, the repetition emphasises on how much better a Summer’s day is.

I think that Sonnet 18, has many persuasive techniques and tactics to

add effect to the purpose of the poem, however I think that the poem

‘To his Coy Mistress’ has more techniques, tactics, themes, Imagery,

Symbolism and better Structure, it was therefore easier to achieve

it’s purposes.

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