‘Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, Lady, were no crime.’
Donne describes the sun in a negative sense which is unusual as the sun is often seen as a positive influence as it gives us life and without it we would not be here. He believes the sun has disturbed the time with his lover and he challenges what he refers to as a ‘busy old fool’ to go and ‘chide late school-boys’. Personifying the sun makes this line both amusing and plain absurd. He also seems to believe that he is so important the sun answers to him. Somewhat amusingly, he thinks the sun has only risen where he is and he asks it to disappear elsewhere and ‘chide late school boys’. He also taunts the sun by stating that he could ‘eclipse’ and ‘cloud’ the sun’s reverend beams with just the wink of an eye but he refrains from doing so, as he would not want to lose sight of his love for that amount of time. This also ties in with the idea that the night that Donne has just spent has given him the feeling of power. However, he overlooks the fact that time is an enemy of the sun itself.
Both poets intend to flatter their lovers. They both compliment individual features of their lovers. Donne focuses on the eyes of his lady. He describes her eyes as being so bright that they may blind the sun itself. My favourite line of the poem encompasses the whole world between the two lovers:
‘She’s all States, and all Princes, I’.
This conveys Donne’s idea that he values the love he and the lady share as the most important thing in his life.
Marvell shows a humorous side by using a few affectionate jokes to lighten the mood of poem. He depicts the two of them having to ‘sit down, and think which way to walk, and pass our long love’s day’. Following this, Marvell uses great leaps in first distance, between the Ganges and Humber, and then time, between the great flood of biblical times and the supposed ‘conversion of the Jews’. He uses these vast gaps to describe his great love for the young woman.
Marvell uses this flattery to try and entice the young lady into sleeping with him. He states that he would spend a hundred years praising her eyes. This is followed by the line:
‘Two hundred to adore each breast’.
This shows that in fact all Marvell is really interested in is sleeping with the girl. I even find this line amusing purely because of the fact that Marvell is contemplating staring at each breast individually for two hundred years. He later continues to compliment the lady on her ‘youthful hue’ which gives her skin the soft complexion of ‘morning dew’. Most of the compliments that Marvell pays the girl involve her youthfulness to emphasise the fact that this juvenility will not last forever and therefore they should enjoy each other’s love whilst they still may.
Marvell also uses metaphors and similes. ‘Like amorous birds of prey’ is one I particularly like. I enjoy it because it is a contrast to our usual image of birds of prey being cold, heartless killers and uses it in the most intimate sense, which is quite an amusing contrast. However, my favourite couplet of the poem reads:
‘Let us roll all our strength, and all
Our sweetness, up into one ball’.
This creates a fantastic image and Marvell expresses his innermost feelings.
Marvell and Donne end their poems with different ideas. Marvell continues his efforts to persuade his lover to give in to desire. He also, as Donne did, personifies the sun, with the idea that they will make ‘him run’ as they will be having so much fun. Whereas Donne describes his bed as a world in itself.
Marvell’s poem has a different structure from Donne’s. Marvell uses rhyming couplets throughout the poem. This gives the poem a fast rhythm and carries you on from line to the next. He also uses enjambment in lines such as:
‘We would sit down, and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love’s day.’
This enjambment slows the tempo of the poem down so more stress can be put on the alliteration ‘long love’s’.
In Donne’s poem the second line of every stanza is short. This is because the first line is a bold statement and the contrast in line structure gives the lines more impact. Donne also uses many pronouns, particularly I. This makes the reader see that the poem revolves around Donne and his lover.
Overall I find both poems both to be amusing. Donne has the arrogant feeling that after one night with his lover he is the centre of the universe and Marvell shows, aside from all the compliments, all he is interested in is sex.