Compare and contrast how Donne and Marvell present death in To His Coy Mistress and Death Be Not Proud.

Rachel Diamond

English Literature Coursework: Poetry Comparison

Compare and contrast how Donne and Marvell present death in

To His Coy Mistress and Death Be Not Proud

To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell and Death Be Not Proud by John Donne were written for two different purposes but the poets have used death as one of the main ideas in both poems. Death Be Not Proud was written at the time when Donne was ill so anger and contempt are very strong feelings that feature in the poem. Death Be Not Proud is in a group of poems and hymns written by Donne called the Holy Sonnets. Donne’s Holy Sonnets explore his love of God and depict his doubts, fears and sense of spiritual unworthiness. Death Be Not Proud is the most prominent example because the messages and ideas Donne has written about never show him as spiritually at peace.

The arguments used in Death Be Not Proud tend to defy death and are much more positive even though the poem is in fact quite negative. This may be because Donne was trying to make death seem small and insignificant because of his fear of it. The opening words of the poem “Death Be Not Proud,” immediately show Donne’s need to challenge death. He treats death as if he is arguing with a person and this may be to make it seem more of a mortal and something that can be beaten. Donne’s first two lines are degrading death and Donne tries to show that he has no fear of what is to come.

“Death be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not soe,”

Donne says that he does not think death is powerful or “mighty” and death should not try to scare him because he knows that it is not as dreadful as some may think. It is interesting that Donne refers to death as “poore,” which is a small but powerful detail in the fourth line. It goes against what most people thought of death at the time and of course, what many people still feel today. Death is usually seen as daunting, frightening and almost mysterious because of the little knowledge we have. Donne using the word “poore” disregards all original feelings of death and paints a new picture of a weak being which has no impact on him. Donne goes on to talk about death being a “slave to Fate,” which is an excellent idea to use. It belittles death again and introduces the idea that death is not the most powerful but is controlled by a more authoritative being. As well as saying that fate controls death, Donne also expresses the idea of people being able to control their fate. Therefore, saying that “kings, and desperate men,” are the prevailing power over both death and fate. Death being a “slave” is an interesting concept because death is normally seen as a thing with great power but a slave is someone with no power. Bringing death down to this level makes it seem humble and something that just carries out orders but has no ability to decide on what happens. “Poyson, warre, and sicknesse” and “poppie or charmes” are examples that Donne uses to show that people can choose to kill themselves and death does not play any part in it. They are human things that happen naturally and can be explained. They do not seem as intimidating as death and show that death’s course can easily be diverted. The idea of life after death is explored in the last two lines. Death is described as just “one short sleepe” which seems to be unimportant in the scheme of things until “wee wake eternally.” I think the most powerful statement in the poem is “Death thou shalt die.” This is very dramatic and the use of irony makes it a provocative statement to make. The idea that death, one of the most unexplained and indefinite things, which provokes so many different views, could die is a difficult idea to grasp, but Donne has made death so human throughout the poem that it seems believable.

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To His Coy Mistress was written by Marvell to persuade his mistress to go to bed with him. Although the poem is mainly about love there are some aspects of it that use death as a way to persuade. In To His Coy Mistress, the poet is talking to his Mistress whereas in Death Be Not Proud the poet is talking to death itself. This difference makes the language and tone used in the poems different. In To His Coy Mistress, the fusion of love and death would make it an influential poem to read for the woman at the time, but I feel that Marvell concentrates so much on physical love and appearance that this influence becomes void. This fusion of love and death can be seen in the line “Thy beauty shall no more be found.” The “beauty” is an example of the physical love and mixed with the thought of “shall no more be found” it makes a powerful statement. Another theme that death is mixed with in this poem to make an impact is time. “Time’s winged chariot hurrying near,” is a good example of this. It describes the need for a fast response because of the lack of time and the winged chariot showing the time rushing by and no way to curtail it. Unlike Death Be Not Proud, this poem portrays death as the final place. Donne uses the idea of life after death but Marvell chooses to make death seem like an empty place that is dark and overwhelming. Marvell describes death as “Deserts of vast eternity,” making it seem as though it is the end of a life rather than the beginning of a new one. At the time that this poem was written, religion played a big part on people’s perspectives of situations. Most people were much more religious and Christianity was widely promoted. Marvell is conscious of this and makes a strong impact by using “the iron gates of life” to further persuade his Mistress.

Imagery is very important in Marvell’s poetry, especially when he talks about death. This is very effective in To His Coy Mistress because it makes the points harsher and more abrupt. Marvell’s use of “worms” when describing death is a brilliant way of making it more off-putting. Worms are seen as slimy, even sickening creatures so linking them with death makes it more repulsive and is more likely to provoke a negative reaction. Throughout the poem, Marvell portrays death as an empty place and “marble vault” is a good image to depict this message. Marble is a cold, hard solid and a vault may represent a secure place with no escape. This embodies a cruel mix of fear and emptiness to scare and discourage the reader. Marvell uses “deserts” because they are normally perceived as vast, empty, almost never-ending spaces of land. When compared to death they seem threatening and are a useful persuasion technique. When all of the imagery is combined it reveals quite an unattractive mix, especially to the woman Marvell was writing the poem for at the time.

The rhythms of the poems greatly affect the impact they have on the reader. To His Coy Mistress has a strong rhythm and Marvell has used rhyming couplets but the sentences are of irregular length.

“Had we but world enough and time,

This coyness, lady, were no crime.”

Marvell, being a metaphysical poet, uses metaphors to explain complex, intellectual ideas. A pattern in the rhyming is also used to clarify these ideas and to make the poem easier to comprehend and to make it more informal. At points in the poem that Marvell is being more serious the rhyming couplets are no longer used and the line of the poem becomes more formal. For example, “Deserts of vast eternity,” is meant to shock and distress the reader so it is not part of a rhyming couplet. Although, a few lines down the word “virginity” is used so it could be a rhyme.

Donne uses a similar technique to Marvell by using rhyming couplets but stopping when making a serious point or when trying to alarm the reader. Donne’s sentence structure is slightly more irregular but I think this deliberate feature makes the poem more exciting.

The use of the typical clichés of love in To His Coy Mistress may have fooled Marvell’s mistress at the time but have not convinced me. I did not think Marvell’s poetry was an effective form of persuasion. The imagery and metaphors used were clever and after studying them in depth I can grasp the powerful messages they convey. However, the frequently used clichés, that you can be miles apart but the love for each other keeps growing stronger, become tedious. Marvell is trying to show that the love he has for his Mistress is true or idealistic, but using grotesque images makes it seem that he is trying too hard and therefore cannot be truly in love with her. Images such as the “worms” may sway the Mistress’ opinion but would not give her any confidence in the love Marvell has for her. Marvell’s usage of rhyming couplets is a clever way of making the poem easier to interpret and Donne has also done well in using this method. I find that Death Be Not Proud is a more effective poem because the arguments are much stronger and Donne does not seem as desperate to convince. Donne has used much more traditional persuasion techniques such as irony and wit to convey the emotional messages in the poem. His usage or a rhetorical question, “why swell’st thou then?” makes the poem have more interesting and believable.

To His Coy Mistress is not as plausible as a poem because of the inconsistencies it has. The main one being Marvell’s need to express his feeling of true love so greatly but then only using phrases such as “adore each breast” and thine eyes,” which describe only physical love. These conflicting ideas make Marvell’s arguments unrealistic and make him seem as though he is in fact not in love with the woman at all but has his mind set on one goal without respecting her feelings.