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Essay influence in Shakespeare's writing
Influence on Shakespeare's writings
Influence on Shakespeare's writings
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Comparing Tone in To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time and To His Coy Mistress
“To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” by Rober Herrick and Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” have many similarities and differences. The tone of the speakers, the audience each poem is directed to, and the theme make up some of the literary elements that help fit this description.
The tone of “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” and “To His Coy Mistress” are different. In Herrick’s poem, his tone is relaxed. For instance when he writes, “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, /Old times is still a-flying,” his word choice has a very relaxed and casual tone. His attitude reflects the relaxed tone in his poem. In Marvell’s poem, his tone is serious. Marvell’s purpose is to persuade his mistress to have sex with him. He tries to lure her in when saying, “Had we but World enough, and Time.” He starts out very seriously, in attempt to convince his mistress. The relaxed tone of “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” and serious tone of “To His Coy Mistress” point out the difference in the way the writers feel about their characters.
Both poems are directed to two different audiences. In “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” Herrick is speaking to all virgins. He never addresses anybody personally. In “To His Coy Mistress” Marvell is addressing his mistress personally. He wrote the poem for his mistress to convince her to become intimate with him. The difference makes a change because now Herrick’s poem affects the reader (depending on if she is female) since it refers to all virgins. However, Marvell’s poem does not since he is referring to one particular individual.
The them of “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” and “To His Coy Mistress” is carpe diem. The carpe diem them states, “life is brief, so let us seize the day.” In “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” Herrick simply states:
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And, while ye may, go marry;
For, having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.
Herrick is telling all of the your virgins to go out and have sex in their prime because if they do not, they will regret not having sex when they had the chance to.
Although Christopher Marlowe wrote his poem, " The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" in accordance with the Pastoral tradition, Andrew Marvell's " To His Coy Mistress", written with the intended theme of "carpe-diem" seems similar enough to Marlowe's poem to have been written by the same author even though the poems are separated by almost a century. Both poems are written in iambic tetrameter and are addressed to an unnamed lover. The tone of both poems are joy and romantic love, however Marvell expands his theme in his last stanza by bidding his lover to unite with him and use their strength to "tear our pleasures with rough strife, Thorough the iron gates of life."(Marvell, 128, lines 43-44)
...with a return to that with which he began: “/Peace, and this cot, and thee, heart-honored Maid!/. As asserted by the preceding lines, the so coined ‘holier-than-thou’ God is responsible for all fortunes bestowed upon Coleridge. He has also chosen to reveal to the reader that the entire poem was, in fact, an address to his “heart-honored Maid”. Conceivably, Coleridge has addressed her as such in order to absolve himself of any perceived wrong-doing; specifically in Line 15: /Like some coy maid half yielding to her lover,/. Distinguishing between “maids”, (one being a trollop, the other a lady of virtue) is a final attempt to get himself ‘off the hook’, colloquially speaking.
There is a similar theme running through both of the poems, in which both mistresses are refusing to partake in sexual intercourse with both of the poets. The way in which both poets present their argument is quite different as Marvell is writing from a perspective from which he is depicting his mistress as being 'coy', and essentially, mean, in refusing him sex, and Donne is comparing the blood lost by a flea bite to the blood that would be united during sex. Marvell immediately makes clear his thoughts in the poem when he says, "Had we but world enough, and time/ This coyness, Lady were no crime", he is conveying the 'carpe diem' idea that there is not enough time for her to be 'coy' and refuse him sexual intercourse and he justifies this thought when he suggests when she is dead, in ?thy marble vault?, and ?worms shall try that long preserved virginity?. He is using the idea of worms crawling all over and in her corpse as a way of saying that the worms are going to take her virginity if she waits until death. Donne justifies his bid for her virginity in a much longer and more methodical way, he uses the idea of the flea taking her blood and mixing it with his, ?It suck?d me first, and now sucks thee?, and then...
In Marvell 's To His Coy Mistress, what begins as a worshipful, romantic declaration of love and adoration takes a menacing turn as it quickly transforms into a message that is far more disturbing. The unidentified speaker first addresses his "mistress" with the words "Had we but world enough, and time / This coyness, lady, were no crime," before launching into a description of the happiness and freedom they
In “ To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time is similar to “Coy Mistress”
In Andrew Marvell's poem "To His Coy Mistress," he's arguing for affection. The object of the speaker's desire wants to wait and take the relationship slow, while the speaker pushes for instant gratification. This persuasive poem makes the point that time waits for no one and it's foolish for two lovers to postpone a physical relationship.
First of all, the poem “To his Coy Mistress” is about a man who tries to acquire the attention of a lady by telling her that she should make the most of her life before time ends. Along the stanza the tone changes, such as in the first stanza where the man explains to the girl how much he would love her in the span of forever. Whereas in the second stanza he reveals that they
In 130, Shakespeare writes of his dark lady, portraying a real picture of her genuine features. Almost every line at first glance seems like an insult to his mistress, ‘My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;’ however, the reader can understand that he is in fact celebrating her natural beauty. It is known that poems were circulated between poets and the poem attacks other poets who flatter their lovers with false comparisons and ridiculous promises, ‘as any she belied with false compare’. Shakespeare claims that that he loves his mistress so much that he can be truthful about her and not exaggerate a beauty that is not there, which conveys a more sincere and genuine tone than a flattering love poem.
Marvell presents a case that few women could deny, but he quickly turns the flattery into a disguised threat. The compliments he pays to his lover promptly evaporate because of his efforts to convince her to have sex. In the first stanza Marvell expresses his desire to spend all the time in the world to admire her beauty, but in the second stanza Marvell communicates his true intent. The second stanza displays the briefness of life and the brevity of beauty. Instead of using time to glorify his mistress, Marvell manipulates time against her beauty. Her shyness hinders him from his true plan, but Marvell anticipates the real...
To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time describes that when you get an opportunity take it because you might not get that chance again. Herrick, the author, says that the best time of your life is when you’re young so get married instead of becoming old and lonely. The other story, To His Coy Mistress, represents a young man who tries to convince a woman that they should be together while they are young.
The Poet's Treatment of Seduction in To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell and The Passionate Shepherd To His Love by Christopher Marlowe
In Robert Herrick’s “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”, the speaker is telling all the young boys to make most their youth. The titles of the poem are referring sexual pleasure and urging youth to make most of it. “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may-/ Old time is still a-flying”(Herrick1-2). The rosebuds are symbol of pleasure; we should go for it while we are young. Time will not wait and we may not have another chance to make it right. He used figurative languages to compare “flowers” to the young women. Women are also like flowers. Women blossoms like flowers, age with the time, and then eventually die. “The sooner will his race be run / and nearer he’s to setting”. He is suggesting you...
But unlike most love poems, instead of saying she was more beautiful, he says that these things are much more beautiful than she. For example, in the first quatrain, the speaker says, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun, / Coral is far more red, than her lips” (lines 1-2). The speaker says these things to show that the love for his mistress is unique and even though her eyes are nothing like the sun or her lips are bland without lipstick, he still loves her. He compares her the way any man would in today’s society. Men tend to overlook what is on the inside, but judge a woman by her looks. Another example, is in the second quatrain, he says, “Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks”(8). He constantly criticizes her and uses harsh words like reeks to show that even though he judges her for her outer beauty, he still loves
Both poems are told from a first person point-of-view. In John Milton’s poem, the speaker is speaking about how he lives in a world with no light, only darkness and that all his light has been used up. In Jane King’s poem, the speaker is talking about a life she is living as a wife after her husband has left or passed away. She is staying in a temporary home and tries to keep it nice and going. This temporariness is seen in Milton’s poem, where the speaker is talking about his vision. That his sight was not permanent, it was only temporary and he eventually lost it. In the third stanza of The Mistress she says, “I have used an alien domesticity”. It shows that she is living in a strange home, a strange family life and that being a
Lines thirty-seven and thirty-eight allude to Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress. Marvell's poem is one of seduction. Through it, he attempts to get his lady to go to bed with him. He tells her that there is really no point in coquetting, that there is little enough time in life as it is, don't waste time not sleeping with him.