A Comparison of Two Pre-1990 Poems

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A Comparison of Two Pre-1990 Poems

The two poems that will be analysed are ‘Coy Mistress’ by Andrew Marvel and ‘Sonnet 130’ by William Shakespeare. Both of these poems are written in the 17th century. This is a period of time when perspectives and attitudes were extremely varied amongst people. This was a time when women were perceived as objects and nothing more, they were just toys to play with and when you did not want to play anymore, you would ignore them. Women had no rights. The dominating sex were the males, they won every arguments or dispute against the opposite gender.

To briefly summarise ‘Coy Mistress’ by Marvell, it is a love sonnet, but with a twist. Of course Marvell used flattery to get the attention of this woman, but he went onto using ‘shocking tactics’ to get his woman. He ends the poem with lines explaining to the woman to ‘make the most of the future’. Whereas ‘sonnet 130’ by Shakespeare describes his woman as having many faults and imperfections, but even then he loves her all the same.

Firstly, I will start off by discussing the two titles of the poem, ‘Sonnet 130’ and ‘To His Coy Mistress’. Shakespeare’s poem ‘Sonnet 103’ was entitled this either on purpose or he had forgotten about naming the poem and in later years a title was given to it, we do not know. If this title had been purposeful some may perceive this as a source indicating how women were treated, just known as a number or an object. Even Shakespeare treated women the same by naming his sonnet a number, but the counter argument to this is that Shakespeare wanted to show how the future generations how the women were taken into account. The view point that Shakespeare just did not title this poem and it was titled later by people who came across the poem without a name.

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Andrew Marvell’s poem ‘To His Coy Mistress’ was clearly entitled this on purpose. Coy meaning shy can easily be connected to the woman described in the poem. Marvell is talking about this woman who is saving her virginity. The woman would be embarrassed about her virginity. The word ‘Mistress’ could mean sex partner besides the wife, so this could be a name he gives to the woman he’s having an affair with, they are in love with each other but to embarrassed or even shy to tell people.

Again Shakespeare’s sonnet is some what similar to the ...

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