Christina Walsh’s poem “A Woman To Her Lover” is set at a later date and is believed to have been written overall in order to teach and inform her lover that she will only love and marry him if they treat each other equally. Attitudes during the 19th Century suggested that women were definitely inferior to males and that males were the primary beings, marriages as well would have incorporated many ideas that Walsh has outlined in her poem, with the wife being like a “bondslave” and the husband the master, as Walsh portrays with the line “As conqueror to the vanquished” which basically means that Walsh sees her lover as thinking that he is the victor, he has won over her (like in a battle) and he now owns her. Walsh refuses to undertake marriage without equality and won’t give in to the uniform, typical marriage since she is a nonconformist. The fact that Walsh’s poem is set at a later date is important because it incorporates many ideas of women equality. A popular hypothesis is that the 18th Century movement started by one the first most famous feminists, Mary Mastell (1668-1731), influenced Walsh and her poem. The poem itself is just bursting with feminist views and that “Girl Power” attitude which can be easily seen in modern day society. The ideas Walsh presents in her poetry are both radical and excessive but probably helped shape the future, the present and our lives. Despite the fact that both poems are composed in a male dominated era, both females display strong indications of their intentions to remain self-ruling. This is obvious with Walsh as basically her whole poem indicates she will be her own master, proof of this comes again from the line, “No servant will I be”, however with Marvell’s lover you have to look deeper, beneath the surface and ask: Why does he need to write this poem? The fact that he needs to be so persuasive indicates that she has already been highly resistant to his previous attempts at convincing her to sleep with him. Walsh is in agreement to enter the relationship but demands as a precondition her right to retain her independence and insists on equality this is signified by lines 21-26 in her final paragraph which say,
“But Lover, if you ask of me
That I shall be your comrade, friend, and mate,
To live and work, to love and die with you,
That so together we may know the purity and height
Of passion, and of joy and sorrow,
Then O Husband, I am yours forever”
The lines represent her needs and if he agrees to follow them then she will be his wife. Marvell’s mistress again appears content to enter into the relationship but is obviously, only prepared to be his mistress, so retaining her independence either as a single person or as a married person, unprepared to relinquish what she already has within her marriage. One difference between both women is displayed by the fact that Walsh appears prepared to give up all for an equal, permanent relationship, whereas the mistress agrees to the relationship but isn’t prepared to give up her independence.
When Walsh says “Not for you the hand of any wakened women” in a sense she is threatening her lover, frightening him with the thought that no woman with any sense would want to marry him if he stays like she’s described him. She is implying in a way that all the demands she wants, any woman gifted with common sense would also want, but this is probably not true as all women aren’t as objective to inequality as she is, even the ones with common sense. Then she offers him a way out saying in the last paragraph “But lover, if you ask of me……….” “Then O husband, I am yours forever” meaning that if he did what she asked him then she would certainly marry him, no questions asked, however not all women would provide him with this second chance.
Andrew Marvell was a politician as well as a poet and so he has utilised his political abilities that we can all see practised in modern day politics, one of these abilities being the power of the word or sophisticated language, these abilities have aided the fabrication of his poem and its effectiveness. It is noticeable that he must have spent great lengths of time perfecting his poem making it as potent as possible, his success is reflected from the fact that 325 years later his poem is still recited and pondered upon. Whereas Walsh’s poem although successful as well has been written in free verse which is less formal as if it was wrote straight off the top of her head, still though each paragraph contains a single idea, a key thought, for example her second paragraph outlines the idea that she isn’t perfect and neither is any woman. It could be seen that in some sense she implies a question and an answer in her first three verses, and it is believed that she uses verbal patterns and repetition within her paragraphs to help uphold her argument and possibly even to ridicule her lover’s ideas. Certainly though, Walsh speaks more freely as if the words are spontaneous rather than decided upon like in Marvell’s poem. Her free verse style reflects in a way the stubbornness of her personality as if she is implying that she will write whatever she wants with no limitations set upon her from any male. Marvell’s verse is more manipulative in the fact that Marvell has used poetic verse and sophisticated persuasive language, as apposed to free verse, this clearly indicates his desire to impress upon the woman his intention to have her as his only soul mate.
Marvell uses a huge amount of compliments in the first verse such as “An age at least to every part.” To try and demonstrate his love for this woman, he uses a metaphor “My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires, and more slow”. However these compliments may have an alternate purpose rather than to just express his feelings of love, he may just be trying to get her to have sex with him. After all he even calls this woman in his title “Mistress” which basically means a bit on the side, this could be a mistake on his part, showing his true intentions. Another possible mistake is when he says,
“An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze,
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest”
In other words he is saying that he is more interested in her body than her face and eyes, showing he is just like the average man. Although he could be aware of this mistake and making it on purpose in order to show his mistress he is normal (a heterosexual red-blooded male). Even if he isn’t he says it in such an inoffensive way that he still appears considerate, smart and loving.
Marvell also uses threatening language to try and persuade his mistress to have sex with him by using frightening thoughts and a phallic image.
“Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long preserved virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust”
In these lines he is foretelling and threatening that she will die someday and when she does, she will lose her looks, she won’t hear his compliments any more because she will be in her grave rotting and her hard conserved dignity will be wasted anyway when the worms infest her vagina. Quaint in the context of Marvell’s poem could be referred to as a pun, meaning female private parts which is interesting because nowadays we don’t use “quaint” in the same way as it was used back then. In modern day we utilise it as an adjective not as a noun meaning appealing or pretty. When Marvell says, “And your quaint honour turned to dust” and “And into ashes all my lust” he is using images of death because we all know the famous line “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” that is said at the end of a funeral when someone has passed on. Overall this threat is very effective because apparently this woman has a high self-respect from the fact that she hasn’t had intercourse with him yet and so the phallic image would be very disturbing to her, also every woman is afraid of losing her looks and finally everybody is afraid of dying.
Both poets have structured their poems not just for coherency but also for impact and effect in addition. I consider Walsh’s poem is less structured than Marvell’s since her poem is written in free verse.
Walsh’s poem has verses jumping from one idea to another almost as if she was brainstorming while writing her poem. The structure her poem follows starts with a strong rhetorical question opening, I can tell it is rhetorical because she doesn’t give her lover time to respond if she was saying this to him and there is no question mark. “Do you come to me to bend me to your will
As conqueror to the vanquished
To make of me a bondslave
To bear you children, wearing out my life
In drudgery and silence
No servant will I be
If that be what you ask, O Lover I refuse you”
When she says “No servant will I be” it is as if she is putting her foot down and stamping in her authority without this line being inverted it would unquestionably lose effect. Her next two verses deny the possibilities that she thinks her lover could believe, and the last verse starting “But Lover, if you ask of me”, “But” being the keyword, basically says do this and I will live, work and die with you, etc. It is interesting how she repeats the last line of the first verse at the end of the second only changing “O, Lover” to “Fool” maybe both lines are exactly the same in her eyes and she is trying to imply that both words convey the same meaning which is an intriguing philosophy. This clearly distinguishes the manner in which she conveys her lover or possibly even all men. She may be trying to say that although he may love her he’s foolish for what he believes he will be entitle to in the marriage, she won’t settle unless there’s equality.
She seems to display symptoms of anger through the course of her poem and clearly her views upon marriage differ greatly from Marvell’s. Marvell describes marriage as a “sport” and many interpret this as him seeing and believing marriage as a union between two loving individuals who work as a team to sustain the relationship between each other and uphold the moral of the unity. Although some could argue that Marvell was really referring to sex when he said this as in “sport” meaning play together, one possibility is that he was linking to both ideas at the same time as in have sex and get married.
However Walsh’s view on marriage is much more realistic, stereotypical and cynical, or it has the potential to be she strongly believes marriage as a burden rather than a pleasure, proof of this belief comes from lines 3 to 5 in her first verse:
“To make of me a bondslave
To bear you children, wearing out my life
In drudgery and silence”
On the other hand though she still wishes or so it seems to experience marriage. Maybe she doesn’t truly believe that it is all that bad, or maybe she believes she can manipulate her lover so that the marriage is as she wants it to be, or maybe she doesn’t care and only wants marriage for the sole purpose of enslaving her husband who she will reel in by the romantic and fantastical language she uses in her last paragraph. Whatever the fact may be from the last paragraph third to last line “And we shall have the music of the spheres for the bridal march” we can see her fantasising about what every woman dreams a beautiful wedding dress, harmonic music, everyone watching you with adoring eyes and a loving handsome husband to greet you at the end of the walkway, scheming or hoping she wants a wedding. In comparison with Marvell’s poem it’s apparent that both poems could be schemes since their true purposes aren’t fully revealed and appear concealed as if behind a smoke screen. This applies more so to Marvell’s poem as he actually makes flaws as outlined earlier in the link when he states,
“An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze,
Two hundred years to adore each breast”
Implying he is more interested in the beauty of her body rather than her face.
From the openings of Marvell’s verses “Had we but world enough, and time”, “But at my back I always hear” and “Now therefore, while the youthful hue”. The keywords being “Had”, “But” and “Now” it is apparent that Marvell is basically saying: If we had enough time then I would love you forever, adore every inch of you, etc. But we can’t because we will eventually die and all your efforts to preserve your virginity will be in vein. So why don’t we enjoy the time we have together while you’ve still got your looks. This structure is supportive of what Marvell wishes.
However what Marvell wishes is arguable, in his last paragraph he gives the impression that he wants sex more than he wants marriage. He uses passionate lines such as “And while thy willing soul transpires At every pore with instant fires”, instant fires apart from having its passionate link in the poem has another purpose he links it with “Rather at once our time devour Than languish in his slow-chapt power.” In other words he is offering, or saying it is better to come together, have sex and use our time in an instant of passion, intimacy and love rather than letting time slowly take our lives and deteriorate us. He personifies time twice once in his last paragraph saying “his slow-chapt power” and once in his second paragraph saying “Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near” a popular hypothesis is that he does this to make death seem more menacing as if it isn’t just a natural occurrence but an actual, real person trying to kill you. The implication he makes from referring to time is that their time is limited. From his opening statement this can be seen in his initial line “Had we but world enough, and time”. Probably the reaction his lover would emit referring to this opening would be mostly concern about how much time she really has left. Which is the desired reaction although he might put her through a mid-life crisis.
Whereas Marvell implies that time is “hurrying near” and limited, even using the image of death in a “wingèd chariot” which is upholding his view that death comes fast. This contrasts greatly with Walsh’s view that time is slow and marriage is for a lifetime. Proof of this theory can be found in her initial paragraph in which she refers to herself as being made into a “bondslave”, the word slave implies that a relationship in marriage would be a lengthy commitment. Further to this reference to “bearing children, wearing out my life” leads us to believe that she foresees herself as enduring a long mundane marriage as she strongly implies more than one child is involved. The last paragraph indicates her feelings that the partnership will last forever, phrases to support this deduction are “I am yours forever” and “Until we reach the very heart of God”. Which shows that she firmly believes they will be together forever even in heaven in the afterlife, it also shows her possible desire for a permanent relationship.
There is a distinct similarity between the poems. Both poets display unlimited devotion to their partners but in slightly differing ways. Marvell is obsessed with the limited time he foresees that he will have with his partner whereas Walsh continually refers to a life long union with her partner. Alternatively it could be seen that Walsh’s lover is more devoted to her than she is to him simply because the possibility arises that he may have had to convince her that he is the right person for her. At the onset of the poem, contained within the text are indications that she is prepared to enter into the relationship that he proposes from his desire to be with her but she makes it clear that she has no intention of being oppressed, she will not compromise. However with Marvell’s poem it appears to be completely one-sided. He continually talks about his emotions and desire for her but it’s questionable that the feeling of devotion is mutual. As his mistress she maybe a single person in which case she appears to be happy with a casual relationship or on the other hand if she is married she is obviously not prepared to give up what she already has just to be with him.
Bearing in mind the male dominated era, one poem displays an acceptance of equality whereas the other shows a definite need for an adjustment to equality in order for both relationships to work. Using a simile Marvell compares himself and his lover as to “amorous birds of prey”. Most birds of prey are together in a pair dominant but often remain together for their entire lives and take equal responsibility for the upbringing of any offspring. This indicates an acceptance by him that he and his mistress are on an equal footing as in a marriage. In contrast Walsh’s lover seems to be treating her, in her own words “A creature who will no greater joy Than gratify your clamorous desire” indicating that she is a timid lesser being prepared to pander to his every desire. She refutes his allegation and redresses the situation by clearly stating that this turn of events will not occur. Her sentence that has been commented on before “Not for you the hand of any wakened woman of our time” also puts into perspective her demands that the relationship will only work if it’s on an equal basis, as in a partnership. She also describes his love as “clamorous” which means noisy or clumsy. It would appear that she feels he hasn’t given full consideration to her desires and to coin a phrase he hasn’t “looked before he’s leapt”. In her third verse she uses a sibilant, semantic group of words to play on his perception that she can be manipulated in the marriage this group includes the words “skin”, “soft”, “supple”, “sense” and possibly “caresses”. Another reason she uses the sibilant group of words is so that she can quickly dismiss this possibility that she can be manipulated by the use of a list of three, hard contrasting descriptive words, “Oh shame, and pity and abasement”, which shows just how objective to this inequality she actually is. A final reason why she uses the sibilant semantic field and the three hard contrasting words is so that she can impress upon him her unique individuality and strong self-ruling personality.
In conclusion both poets display clear similarities and differences in their viewpoints, such as previously described about how Marvell implies time will eventually run out “Had we but world enough, and time” compared to how Walsh believes they have an eternity “I am yours forever”, the keyword there being “forever”, as do their partners such as outlined before when I explained that both are being selfish in their own ways, Walsh’s lover seems to demand for inequality and Marvell’s mistress will not give up her virginity, and in contrast widely diverse views on what they perceive the principles of love, sex and marriage to be about. The structure of the poems is such that their views are portrayed in an abundantly clear fashion to their lovers utilising widely diverse and occasionally complex use of what we know as the old archaic English language.
