The Theme of Romantic Love in To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell and Valentine by Carol Ann Duffy

The Theme of Romantic Love in To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell and Valentine by Carol Ann Duffy

For this assignment, I have chosen to analyse two contrasting poems.

The first poem is "To His Coy Mistress" which was written in1650 by

the English poet Andrew Marvell, and it is surprising how modern the

subject matter is. This poem uses language to persuade the poet's

mistress into shedding her coyness. The second poem, "Valentine" by

the contemporary poet Carol Ann Duffy sets out to show how the poet

casts aside the traditional artificial values of love, to place

instead her own truthful picture of love.

"To His Coy Mistress" is a classic seductive poem, a carpe diem poem,

in which the poet expresses his sadness at the thought of time swiftly

passing by and the brevity of love. It comes across as a private

meditation, giving a persuasive argument to his mistress, relating to

the passage of time and the fading of earthly joys.

In the first part of the poem, Marvell presents us with images of time

and space. He tells his mistress what they could achieve in their

relationship if they had sufficient time.

"Had we but world enough, and time,

This coyness Lady, were no crime."

Marvell uses the word "crime", in order to suggest that her refusal of

him amounted to a crime. He does this in order to make her feel a bit

guilty or foolish because she is refusing him. This is the first

indication of his persuasive and selfish argument.

Marvell continues by suggesting that if they did have all the time in

the world on their hands, his lady could even walk by the River

Ganges, a river in India, where she could amuse herself by...

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..., Andrew

Marvell sets out to crush his mistress's morals with his argument

regarding Time. It could be said Marvell was not as concerned with the

psychological side of love as he was with the physical side. On the

other hand, in "Valentine", Carol Ann Duffy sets out to cast aside any

traditional connotations associated with love in order to implement

her own meditations regarding the true values of love. In my opinion,

Carol Ann Duffy appears to have a better grasp of understanding

regarding the value of true love, as in order to have a good

relationship, it is first necessary to understand the person as a

separate entity and to realise that it is necessary to always look at

things under a true light. When observed under artificial light, so

many minor details can be missed which in the long term could prove

fatal.