Both Marvell and Auden present different attitudes towards life in the poems ‘A dialogue Between the Soul and Body’ and ‘Miss Gee’. These attitudes assert that the soul must resist temptation in the courtesy of the body. In doing this sacrifice Soul has achieved harmoniousness in the balance between Body and Soul. Also as in the case of Miss Gee these attitudes relay that no matter what the human mind may desire it will exist in this globe of time as it wishes.
The two authors explore these attitudes and ideas through the use of imagery including language, metaphor, simile etc. Different attitudes to life also contribute to the poems through the use of tone and rhyme. Marvell uses a mixed dialogue of language and techniques. He uses these to express in ‘A Dialogue between the Soul and Body’ how Soul and Body were not meant for each other. Marvell explains how a Soul and Body don’t fit, “So architects do square and hew”, he also explains the feelings of each.
Soul feels that living in a body is a trap, a dungeon and wishes to be released to the heavens, “Oh, who shall from this dungeon raise a soul enslaved so many ways.” Body does not want to feel anything it just wants to be a body, “And warms and moves this needless frame, A fever could but do the same” In ‘A Dialogue between Soul and Body’ Marvell has the use of rhetorical questions “Who shall me deliver whole, From bounds of this tyran nci soul.” Auden uses language and techniques a lot in his poem Miss Gee. He uses these to show his different attitudes toward life. Miss Gee is about an old lonely lady who is self-conscious about her body though in fact it becomes ironic, Miss Gee ending up dead on a table being dissected naked. Auden has used persona in the opening paragraph “Let me tell you a little story.” Auden also uses imagery and rhyme in the first paragraph to describe Miss Gee as no longer attractive, “Her lips were thin and small, She had narrow sloping shoulders and she had no bust at all.” Auden also gives the reader the impression of Miss Gee being eccentric, “She’d a purple mac for wet days, A green umbrella too to take.” During the whole poem Auden enforces Miss Gee’s loneliness (she is very aware she is alone, “And said: Does anyone care that I live in Clevedon Terrace on one hundred pounds a year.” Both the poems express different attitudes towards life. These attitudes are enforced in the poem ‘A Dialogue between Soul and Body’, means that not all things in life are made to fit and that to ensure our survival we must comprise and seize opportunities.
The Essay on Miss Gee Notes
Scenes and Places 83 Clevedon Terrace, ‘Church Bazaar’, Miss Gee’s dream at a palace than into a place of the unknown where no objects are there but her and the vicar having sex, during summer Miss Gee got on her bicycle and passed lovers down the street, she visits a clinic and meets Doctor Tomas. A hospital emerges as she is taken there, she gets hanged up in the anatomy room ...
Auden expresses in his poem ‘Miss Gee’ how life can also be a waste and not to dwell on things that may not come. He shows this through the life of Miss Gee an Old lonely self-conscious lady who is isolated from the rest of the world. Miss Gee does not wish to reveal herself “With her clothes buttoned up to her neck”, even on her death bed in a women’s ward she is reluctant to reveal any skin, “Lay in the ward for women with the bedclothes right up to her neck.” Both authors express different perspectives on life in their poems.
