While ‘hour’ presents feelings of more romantic love, ‘To his coy mistress’, presents the idea of a more physical love. But both poems are based upon many of the same ideas, but are shown in different ways. For example the ideas of Nature, sense of greed, sense of time moving too quickly and a sense realistic love. In the poem ‘hour’, there is a feeling that all they have is an hour but yet, time is travelling two fast, “For thousands of seconds we kiss”.
By using the word ‘thousands’, it gives the impression that each second is very precious. And each second is a “treasure” that needs to be carefully counted, whereas in ‘to his coy mistress’, he asks, for only an hour in bed with her. The poet talks about how much time he wants to spend with the woman “A hundred years should go to praise thine eyes…two hundred to adore each breast…and thirty thousand to the rest”, but all of that is undermined by the first statement of the poem, “had we but world enough and time”.
He is showing very courtly and romantic love to mask only wanting an hour with her because he knows, spending thousands of years with her is only a fantasy. There are also many other connotations of time throughout the poem, for example he talks about how short their lives are going to be, trying to convince her that she should sleep with him now. “Time’s winged chariot hurrying near”, Marvell uses the word chariot, because chariots are known to be very fast, in one direction, to represent how time moves quickly and how you can’t reverse time.
The Essay on Valediction Forbidding Mourning Love Poem Donne
Compare and Contrast "Sonnet XVIII" (Shakespeare) with "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" (Donne) in terms of meaning, tone and style. Conclude by saying which you prefer and why. John Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," and Shakespeare's "Sonnet XVIII" depict love in extremely different ways. John Donne explores the power of the connection between his, and his lover's souls, whereas ...
There is a sense in to his coy mistress of needing to do things quickly before they get to old and their passion fades. He shows this in a very long quote in the second stanza “Thy beauty shall no more be found, Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound. My echoing song, then worms will try that preserved virginity”. We can see him here trying to convince her to sleep with him before she gets too old. He uses the word ‘vault’, which has connotations of something very hard to break (i. e. her chastity or virginity).
He uses the passage as a warning to show here how by the time she does get around to losing it she will be very old. In the passage when it says ‘worms’, I don’t think that the poet means literal worms, I think the worms are used to represent old men, because she will have waited so long to give it up, ( again a warning).
Marvell uses the quote echoing song, to represent an ‘I told you so’ which is to come in the future. Again all these specific quotes are meant to be seen as a warning to the woman, that they must have sex while they are still young and passionate.
In ‘hour’ there is a sense of not having enough time, the very first phrase says, “Love is times beggar” it gives the sense that love is at the mercy of time. She uses the word ‘beggar’ because it shows how much love suffers at the hands of time. But in contrast to the opening and closing phrase, at the end of the second stanza it says “Time slows, for here we are millionaires”. Duffy uses the word millionaires because it contrasts ‘beggar’ from before, It shows love is no longer the beggar because the two lovers feel they have a grasp, and are taking advantage of the passing time.
The final short stanza of the poem hour represents the slow loss of control of time, Duffy says “wants love to be poor”, which shows how they are slowly turning back from millionaires to beggars. And in a last ditch attempt to slow time, the poet uses the sezura, to represent how they want to hold on to every last bit of time they can. For example “than here. Now. Time haves love, wants love poor, but love spins gold, gold, gold from straw. Duffy uses lots of punctuation marks to force the reader to slow down, whilst reading this passage, which represents how they want to hold on to every last second of their time together. The topic of Nature is also commonly shared between the two poems, but again are used in different way’s, for example in ‘hour’ it is used in a romantic gesture, like all they need is nature and each other; but in ‘to his coy mistress’ the topic of nature is used as a threat to convince her to have sex with him before she gets too old.
The Essay on The Use Of The Word Love
Six months after I met a young man, he expressed to me how much he loved me. Being sixteen years old, I thought it to be very flattering but I could not accept him saying this to me. The word, love in the romantic sense, is something that would take so much out of me to say to a person. Love is something that you express to someone that you can not, in any way, see living your life without. The ...
Another thing he uses to warn the woman that they should have sex before they get too old is the quote “though we cannot make our sun”. The sun is always moving, much like time, so they must have sex before there time (Or beauty and passion) runs out. It is another illustration he uses to show her why the need to have sex Now. The word ‘sun’ is also a homophone of the word ‘son’, which they could make when they have sex. In ‘too his coy mistress’ nature is used in a way to convince the lady that she should have sex with him; he uses the quote “Deserts of vast eternity”.
The poet used the word ‘deserts’ because deserts are often barren, and so would their relationship be without sex. Also, in that day, barren also meant that the woman would not be able to have children, and now she is not giving the opportunity to have children so the word ‘desert’ could be used as an insult/threat to the lady. He also uses the quote “Like the morning dew”, he uses this quote to represent her youthfulness, and how quickly it will fade, like dew in the morning. Trying to convince her that she should sleep with him while they are still young and passionate.
Another link to nature and also to the previous desert quote is “Quaint honor turned to dust”, the poet uses the word quaint to show how being courteous and complimenting is very honorable but totally worthless when it comes to his views on relationships and sex. This shows us how his previous levels of courtly love where just a mask and a coy to get her into bed. Nature in the poem ‘hour’ is shown at a very different perspective than in ‘to his coy mistress’, it is not used as a threat but as more of a romantic gesture. We find an hour together, spend it not on flowers or wine”, Duffy is making it clear that they are not doing the cliche romantic gestures, there is a sense of finding a part in Nature, and not wasting money and time on flowers and wine because they feel they don’t need them. There is another mention of wealth and its inecesity in their relationship, for example, “No jewel hold a candle to the cuckoo spit” Which shows how she would rather be rich in nature and love rather than in wealth. Greed plays a great part in both of these poems.
The Essay on Ways to Understand Poems
Billy Collins’ “Introduction to Poetry” is a short poem consisting of seven stanzas but is nonetheless a colorful piece of literary work that is filled with figurative language. Collins explores how poems in general suffer from the hands, in a manner of speaking, from those who attempt to study them, especially students. The narrator tries to guide the students about the proper way of unraveling ...
For example in ‘To his coy mistress’ T]the layout of the poem ‘to his coy mistress’ has a lot of meaning, the first stanza, shows him trying to woe and flatter the girl, the second stanza shows him trying to convince her, and the last stanza he shows he is very insistent on getting in bed with her. This specific quote is from the last stanza of the poem, where he is very insistent. And in this last stanza the power of greed takes over him and he is very passionate , he says “And tear our pleasures, with rough strife, through the iron gates of life”.
In this quote he does not use very romantic words but much more physical and violent words, for example ‘tear’ and ‘rough strife’, shows how he is desperate. He also creates the idea of wanting to break her chastity ‘iron gates of life’, this quote shows how his greed and necessity for sex overpowers his politeness and respect for the woman. The theme of greed can also been seen in the poem hour, and it can be seen through the connotations of Greek mythology.
For example Duffy says “the Midas light”, Midas is the famous king who was so greedy that he asked for everything he touched to be turned into gold. In the terms of the poem ‘hour’, she is saying that her love is so great it is greedy, but she also knows that the punishment and consequences are not very far behind. As we can see in the two plays, there are many contrasts and differences between the two poems but many ideas of time moving quickly, words and phrases with connotations of nature, and an overwhelming sense of greed in both of the poems.
