Style and Tone in Two Poems: “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell and “The Ruined Maid” by Thomas Hardy

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In this essay I will compare two poems: “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell and “The Ruined Maid” by Thomas Hardy. I will look at the style and the tones that are used in both of these poems in order to compare them.

“To His Coy Mistress” is one-way argumentative conversation featuring one horny young man trying to convince his reluctant mistress to give up her virginity to him before she gets old. He uses the argument that she needs to have sex now because her youth and beauty will fade as she ages. He thinks they should seize the moment because life is short and she would not want to die a virgin, and he will not want her when she gets old. The beginning of this poem tells the main argument, “Had we but world enough, and time, this coyness, Lady, were no crime.” In this statement the man is saying if they had all the time in the world that her reluctance would not be a problem; however, they will get older and they will be less beautiful. He exaggerates using hyperboles in his plea by saying how long he would love her using time. He says, “I would Love you ten years before the Flood, and you should, if you please, refuse Till the conversion of Jews.” He is implying that he will always love her until the end of the world regardless of time. He tells her if there was time, he would love each and every part of her “Two hundred to adore each breast, But thirty thousand to the rest.” He says she deserves the finest treatment, “For, Lady, you deserve this state,” I think he is only trying to trick her make her believe this would be the right thing to do.

The second part is very sad for a man to go to these extremes in order to fulfill his selfish needs. The man again stresses there is no time, saying “But at my ba...

... middle of paper ...

...our hands were like paws”; some alliterations such as ‘thik oon’ and ‘theas oon’, ‘t’other’; ‘blue and bleak’; ‘megrims or melancholy’.

Overall, in his poem I think Hardy made fun of the societal hypocritical morals; besides the women were having sex with men, and these men should have been condemned as well.

Comparing these two poems, they both are about sex, women, and modesty. In “To His Coy Mistress”, the woman is unwilling to give up her virginity and wants to maintain her morality and goodness. In “The Ruined Maid “, Melia experienced sex, and sex made her a better person and she is not embarrassed about being “ruined. I do not have an opinion about either woman. I don’t condone being a prostitute under any circumstance, but in modern times virginity is rare. I think Marvell and Hardy, wanted to show the hypocrisy of these old moral standards.

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