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Recommended: Impact of poetry
I know that there is a unique difference between love and lust. In the Andrew Marvell poem “To His Coy Mistress,” I would argue over the issue of love versus lust. In this poem, we are introduced to a man who is infatuated with a young woman and wants to become intimate with her. He tries to pursue this young woman, but the woman is playfully hesitant. The man is trying to explain to the young woman if she keeps being resistant to him, they would never get a chance become intimate. Could it be that the man really does have true love for the young woman? Or is that he is just lusting for her gentle touch?
In the first stanza of this poem, the man begins by expressing his feelings for the young woman. He starts off by trying to flatter the young woman. He does this by telling her that if he had all the time in the world, he would use it by telling her how beautiful she was. Since he knows that they do not have all the time in the world, he uses his charm and persuasion to try to get her to become intimate with him. In my opinion, at this point of the poem, it seems as if the man has...
In this poem Larkin uses a nonchalant tone to talk about his disappointing love life. Firstly the way he describes the women shows he only focuses on approaches rather than the person themselves- “a bosomy English rose/and her friend in specs I could talk to”. The fact that the persona used a separate line after the latter line to describe “her friend in specs” shows that the persona sees the friend in specs as inferior based on her appearance. This is because the noun “specs” has connotations of someone less attractive, especially when compared to a “bosomy English rose”. However this nonchalant tone changes later on in the poem. The persona shows emotion in the fact that he “gave a ten Guinea ring” to the “friend in specs”who left him. The fact that the persona only focuses on the material aspects of love shows how love has disappointed him. This also shows that his love life has been an annoyance to him, in the fact that he had to give something up (in this case a “ten Guinea ring”) to get something in return that he was displeased with. Consequently, the persona has actually revealed his feeling towards a disappointing love life, even though the persona did not really want to unveil the idea that love has affected him in any
The poem goes on to tell of the women, who "...haven't put aside desire/ but sit at ease and in pleasure,/ watching the young men" (Murray 837). This work obviously shows how the women lust after the attractive young men, and clearly are not in love; any one of these men could have been replaced with another attractive man and would have m...
When I first read this poem, I thought this poem was going to be about a warm embrace between two people who were happy to see each other. I was wrong. The embrace is a lie, just a show to make everyone think this person has something most people desire for love. The tone seems warm and comforting, but it quickly changed. At the end of the poem, the tone becomes very cynical.
In this stanza there is a question asked to the question reveals that the girl is puzzled about the lord is after her. This suggests that she is aware that he has different motives rather than love and romance. This also shows that she knows the compliment is false and just a way of seducing her into bed.
The speaker compares the moment before a kiss to “syntax,” suggesting that, oftentimes, much thought goes into the forming of an emotion. He quickly juxtaposes this, however, against a relationship with nature. Immediately following this kiss, he remarks that this prior mentality has caused him “wholly to be a fool” (cummings 5). Throughout the middle of the poem, he compares the human body to the flourishing of the world. This is first introduced this in the second stanza, as he writes that “Spring is in the world” (6). This evokes imagery of life, of rebirth, of the sun rising to vanquish the cold winter behind us. The speaker goes on to speak of “kisses” from his lover, stating that “my blood approves,” in other words, races at the introduction of unreserved affection (7). If we analyze the symbolism in these lines, we can read them as the short narrative of a moment of enlightenment. The speaker, who has previously approached life in an analytical manner, has been suddenly inspired by the tenderness of a kiss. He realizes, in a flash of emotional impulse, that his prior lifestyle, his careful attention to “the syntax of things” has been dishonest (3).
“Let’s face it, I have been momentary,” in this line the narrator is clearly stating that she knows she is nothing more than sex (Sexton 349). The narrator understands that the man she has more than lust for is in love with his wife who has been “melted carefully” for him. The narrator in this poem is just a slutty mistress who doesn’t really care whose life she messes up. She is being selfish in the sense that she doesn’t really care that a man is only using her for sex. She doesn’t care that she is only temporary and soon after this affair ends the man would’ve have found a new mistress or decided to be faithful to his wife (which I doubt). The narrator doesn’t describe needing to be faithful to someone else showing that she doesn’t understand the pain she is actually causing. Where as, the man is only physically involved with the narrator. Because she knows he will always love his wife and his fidelity will be with his wife and his children, even though, he is not faithful (Sexton 350). Although in this situation it doesn’t seem so clean cut as to why the affair began, but for all we know it could be a girl trying to feel loved. Meaning that, she has the affair because she knows for a short amount of time when they are having sex she can feel important enough to a man, even being just a
writing the poem, to woo his love. Or maybe is the line was not meant
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.
In the case of To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvall, a not-so-gentle gentleman is trying to woo a “coy” young lady with claims of love. This poem is strewn with hyperbole to the point that it becomes exactly the opposite of love. When there is such over exaggerated praise, it starts to lose the real meaning of the message. If you take a look at lines 13-18, you can see the obvious amplification:
Lover A Ballad was written as a reply to the poem To His Coy Mistress.
from the rest in that they describe a love that has ended or will end
The formalistic approach to an open text allows the reader to devour the poem or story and break down all the characteristics that make it unique. The reader is able to hear the text rather than read it, and can eventually derive a general understanding or gist of the text. "According to the Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature "when all the words, phrases, metaphors, images, and symbols are examined in terms of each other and of the whole, any literary text worth our efforts will display its own internal logic" (Geurin 75)." When utilizing the formalistic approach, the reader must search in and out of the lines for point of view, form, imagery, structure, symbolism, style, texture, and so on. Using the general theme of time, it is important to focus on structure, style, and imagery found in Andrew Marvell's poem "To His Coy Mistress".
William Yeats sonnet, “Never give all the heart,” depicts a man in a frustrating relationship with a woman that’s taking his heart for granted only using his feeling as a game, thus resulting in heartbreak. First, Yeats warns that his feelings-- that is wholeheartedly invested in this woman-- isn’t worth having because she doesn’t think it’s worth giving a chance, “for love/ will hardly seem worth thinking of/ to passionate women if it seem/ certain”; second, he explains that his love won’t last for long,“for everything that's lovely is/ but a brief, dreamy, kind delight,” because the speaker doesn’t know she’s taking him for granted; third, it’s revealed that her only intentions was to string him along using his love as a game, “for all smooth
In the third stanza he prays for her beauty, but not too much. He considers the beauty as a decisive element for choosing the right person to ma...
On a literal level, this poem is bashing true love. This is made apparent throughout the poem. The speaker states things like “listen to them laughing-it’s an insult” and “it’s obviously a plot behind the human race’s back”. It is apparent that the speaker doesn’t have a positive opinion about true love. They even so far as to claim that it an outrage to justice and that it “disrupts our painstakingly erected principles”. This poem is about how true love is just illusion; especially to those people that never find it.