In the poem (‘The Beggar Woman’) the poet keeps the reader interested throughout the whole story by letting us know the story gradually and in this quote ‘and what if we two should retire a little way into the wood’, he keeps us reading to see what happens later on in the poem. At the end of the poem he keeps us (the reader) reading by the woman tricking the man, which amuses the reader.
The poet makes the reader on the woman’s side because of the way he presents the man. He presents the man so well, we laugh at the man when the women tricks him. This is where the woman is getting her own back. As I mentioned, at the end she ends up tricking him but even though she tricks him we are pleased because he has all the advantages of wealth and social power where as the women has nothing. We do think that the women is irresponsible because she left her child with a stranger. The serious point in this poem is that you should never treat a lower class, poor woman with disrespect just because they are poor.
The ‘Beggar Woman’ is narrative whereas in ‘To His Coy Mistress’ it is like a speech to another person. The ‘Beggar Woman’ is in the third person unlike the poem ‘To his Coy Mistress’ which is in the first person. Both of the two poems are about relationships. Also in ‘To His Coy Mistress’ the man and woman are from upper class. This means the man had to write a poem to the woman because the woman in those days were strictly chaperoned therefore it was difficult to spend time with women. Both of the two poems are written in rhyming couplets but in “To His Coy Mistress” the couplets are used to make points.
In ‘To His Coy Mistress’ this quote ‘I would love you ten years before the flood’ means that he would do anything for her. But then the man says ‘if we had enough time’ later on in the poem which means this is not true. The man in ‘To His Coy Mistress’ gives the women compliments and promises (this will mean the woman will be impressed). But again he says ‘if we had enough time’.
In ‘To His Coy Mistress’ the reader either sees the man as a romantic, kind, gentleman or sees him as insincere, making empty promises, a show off, arrogant and a fraud. The similarities between the two men are that both men are upper class, rich, want to sleep with a women and neither of the men take the women seriously. The difference between the two men are that the man in ‘To His Coy Mistress’ is not trying to hide from his love for the women where as in the ‘Beggar Women’ he is trying to hide his love from his friends.
In the middle of ‘To His Coy Mistress’ he goes from complimenting her to threats and putting pressure on her. We can tell this from this quote ‘then worms shall try that long preserved virginity’ this is a threat to her he is basically saying if you do not have sex with me you will be a virgin all your life. Also when he says ‘desserts of yast eternity’ it shows emptiness (this is a metaphor). In the middle/end the reader does not like the man anymore because he goes from being a show off to sending her threats.
In both the two poems the men see sex as a ‘game’. We can tell this because in ‘To His Coy Mistress’ the man says ‘sport’ and in the ‘Beggar women’ the man says ‘game’. In ‘To His Coy Mistress’ there is a simile. The simile is this ‘like amorous bird of prey’ this shows the man compares them to two love birds of prey making love which is inconsiderate, incentive, offensive and rude. Another thing is that the man is too aggressive and impatient when he says ‘and tear our pleasures with rough strife’.
In ‘To His Coy Mistress’ I think the man is worse than the man in the ‘Beggar women’ because in line 30 he says ‘lust’ which means he only wants sex, this is bad because he is using her just for sex and nothing else. The poem just like the ‘Beggar Women’ does not present the man very well. In ‘To His Coy Mistress’ he (the poet) presents the man as rude, inconsiderate and offensive.
The ‘Beggar Women’ and ‘To His Coy Mistress’ are both good poems that make a point. The point in the ‘Beggar Women’ is that you should never trust everyone - even a poor woman or take advantage of anyone. The point in ‘To His Coy Mistress’ is that you should never trust a man even though they are giving you compliments and promises. I think the attitudes in the two poems are almost the same today because you still get people who are like the two men in the two poems. The poem that I prefer is the ‘Beggar women’ because it has humour in the poem and a lower class women tricks an upper class man.
