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.
Many would say that the character Ponyboy should be the main hero of our story, but that’s just not the case. Ponyboy was easily pushed down, letting things get to him and letting his emotions take complete control. One push or slap from his brother and he runs away, like a cowardly lion scrambling into the tall grass of the savannah. Johnny on the other hand, is forced against abuse that no one should be able to be put through. Yet he stands his ground.
Ponyboy doesn’t act like any regular greaser who is tough and likes to pick fights. Ponyboy cares about other people and will do things to benefit others. “I didn’t know what he was talking about, so I just went on picking up the glass from the bottle end and put it in the trash can. I didn’t want anyone to get a flat tire.” (pg. 172) Instead of leaving the
Ponyboy and Sodapop Curtis are two brothers who face hardship in S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, yet remain true to their noble hearts and commit honorable acts. Ponyboy, who is usually referred to as “Pony” by family and friends, is a fourteen year old boy who lives in a town that is divided by gangs. He has a light brown head of long hair and eyes that are green, though he wishes they could be grey. Ponyboy lives with his older brothers as their parents are dead. Socs and cops unfairly stereotyped him and other greasers as “hoods.” This causes violence and while walking home from the movie theater he is jumped by Socs. Ponyboy argues with his older brother Darry who is very strict and it often rough with him:
got every kid out. Johnny got hurt and had to go to the hospital because tember fell on broke his back. After he got to the hospital days later Ponyboy and Dally visited him there and he had his last breath. Although they have a lot of similarities there are also some differences.
In the story, The Outsiders, written by S.E. Hinton, You meet the main character, Ponyboy, who is the youngest of the gang who is friends with 2nd youngest, Johnny. It takes place in Tulsa Oklahoma. At the beginning it talks about Ponyboys brothers, Soda and a Darry, and how their in a gang with him called the Greasers who are in a rival with another gang on the other side of town called the Soc’s. The main conflict in the book is when Johnny kills the soc Bob because he was drowning Ponyboy and almost killed him. Later in the book, they end up having a rumble to settle differences because of the death of Bob and the Greasers end up on top. At the end, Ponyboy moves on after the death of Johnny and Dally and writes and writes a story that has been on his mind the whole time.
“Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.”- Kahlil Gibran. I am going to compare and contrast between “Sonnet 130”, by William Shakespeare and “The Harlem Dancer”, by Claude McKay. Both poems and sonnets are English and have fourteen lines or stanzas, and the rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG, which points out beauty in women.
she is a shy mistress and it does not mean, as it does today, that she
The sonnet opens with a seemingly joyous and innocent tribute to the young friend who is vital to the poet's emotional well being. However, the poet quickly establishes the negative aspect of his dependence on his beloved, and the complimentary metaphor that the friend is food for his soul decays into ugly imagery of the poet alternating between starving and gorging himself on that food. The poet is disgusted and frightened by his dependence on the young friend. He is consumed by guilt over his passion. Words with implicit sexual meanings permeate the sonnet -- "enjoyer", "treasure", "pursuing", "possessing", "had" -- as do allusions to five of the seven "deadly" sins -- avarice (4), gluttony (9, 14), pride (5), lust (12), and envy (6).
Sonnet 18 and Sonnet 130, by William Shakespeare, are two of the most well known Shakespeare sonnets. Both are similar in theme, however, the two poems are very much contradictory in style, purpose, and the muse to who Shakespeare is writing.
Shakespeare’s story, Love Labour’s Lost, focuses the story on the endearing lust of men. Women are a powerful force, so in order to persuade them men will try to use a variety of different resources in order to attract the opposite sex. Men will often use their primal instincts like a mating call, which could equivocate today to whistling at a woman as she walks by. With the use of lies to tell a girl what she wants to hear, the musk cologne in order to make you appear more sensual, or the cliché use of the love poem, men strive to appeal to women with the intent to see his way into her heart. William Shakespeare is a man, who based on some of his other works, has a pretty good understand and is full of passion for the opposite sex. Nonetheless, whether it had been honest love or perverse lust, Shakespeare, along with most men, aimed to try to charm women. With keeping this understanding of Shakespeare in mind, his weapon of choice, to find his portal way into a woman’s heart, was his power of writing.
This poem speaks of a love that is truer than denoting a woman's physical perfection or her "angelic voice." As those traits are all ones that will fade with time, Shakespeare exclaims his true love by revealing her personality traits that caused his love. Shakespeare suggests that the eyes of the woman he loves are not twinkling like the sun: "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" (1). Her hair is compared to a wire: "If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head" (3). These negative comparisons may sound almost unloving, however, Shakespeare proves that the mistress outdistances any goddess. This shows that the poet appreciates her human beauties unlike a Petrarchan sonnet that stresses a woman's cheek as red a rose or her face white as snow. Straying away from the dazzling rhetoric, this Shakespearean poem projects a humane and friendly impression and elicits laughter while expressing a truer love. A Petrarchan sonnet states that love must never change; this poem offers a more genuine expression of love by describing a natural woman.
has the gentle heart of a woman but is not inconsistent as is the way
Through the form of sonnet, Shakespeare and Petrarch both address the subject of love, yet there are key contrasts in their style, structure, and in the manner, each approaches their subjects. Moreover, in "Sonnet 130," Shakespeare, in fact, parodies Petrarch's style and thoughts as his storyteller describes his mistress, whose "eyes are in no way as the sun" (Shakespeare 1918). Through his English poem, Shakespeare seems to mock the exaggerated descriptions expanded throughout Petrarch’s work by portraying the speaker’s love in terms that are characteristic of a flawed woman not a goddess. On the other hand, upon a review of "Sonnet 292" from the Canzoniere, through “Introduction to Literature and Arts,” one quickly perceives that Petrarch's work is full of symbolism. However, Petrarch’s utilization of resemblance and the romanticizing of Petrarch's female subject are normal for the Petrarchan style.
In the second quatrain, the lover grants to Time its own will: "And do whate'er
This sonnet appears to be another version of 153 rather than one of a series. These two sonnets, two renderings of the same ides, could either prove or disprove Shakespeare's authorship. Only twice did Shakespeare rewrite any of his sonnets, both 138 and 144 appear slightly modified in _The Passionate Pilgrim_. These are evidence of Shakespeare's rewritings, but the only problem is if one is out to prove the authorship on these grounds, over-revision remains a factor; that is, Shakespeare rewrote the two sonnets changing only a few words and not the entire sonnet. These seem to be the problems with citing Shakespeaare as their author, but equally disproving him as the author. If I were to argue for Shakespeare's authorship, I would correlate "the help of bath" with being an allusion to "The Wife of Bath's Tale" in Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_. Shakespeare used Chaucer as a source in _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ (from "The Kinght's Tale" and "The Miller's Tale"), _Troilus and Cressida_ (from _Troilus and Criseyde) and _The Two Noble Kinsmen_ (from "The Knight's Tale"). Seeing that Shakespeare used Chaucer as a reference in the past for help, I suppose "the help of bath" could be a tribut to Chaucer and thus a possible source or allusion. But this does remain on unsubstantial grounds due to the possibility of it simply meaning a water-filled basin.