Metaphysical poems are often structured in the form of an argument and To his coy mistress is no exception. This poem is aimed at trying to convince a young woman to have sex with the speaker, a young man. The poem has three distinct parts, the thesis, the antithesis, and the solution. The thesis is the problem or reason put forth by the poet; in this case the poet gives the reason to his coy mistress as to why he cannot spend time in trying to win her over romantically. The poet says that if time was abundant he would “walk and pass long loves day” This use alliteration in long love emphasis the length of time spent waiting. The poet then compares his love to the Indian Ganges which is supposedly a beautiful and exotic river. The poet then compares himself to the Humber which is a river found in England supposedly an ordinary and humble river. This use of flattery is put into place to try and convince the woman to come with him. The poet then reverts back to the subject of time and tries to convince his coy mistress that his love would last from the “ten years before the flood”. The flood being the biblical flood which was supposedly 4000 years ago. The poet goes on to say that his love will last until the “conversion of all the Jews” to Christianity. This use of hyperboles is a common feature of metaphysical poems. The use of hyperboles is to convince the reader about the truth in the poet’s intentions. This use of exaggeration is used throughout the length of the thesis. In the next line the poet refers to his “vegetable love”. “Vegetable” being a euphemism for his sexual organs which would grow “vaster than empires”. These two lines are mainly used for comic effect where the poet says that his love would grow to be larger than empires.
The next 6 lines in the poem have a reference time in every line. This affirms the poem’s other theme of time. The poet tries to convey the fact that if he had an idyllic endless amount of time he would spend a hundred years to admire her eyes, two hundred years to “adore each breast” and thirty thousand years to the rest of her body. He would then spend an age to “show your heart” or her love. This last line is a surprise as it deviates from the general raunchy tone of the poem and takes a more romantic route. This use of gross exaggeration with these lines is to convince the woman about how beautiful she is. The poet then states that this is how he would like to court her and she would not get a “lower rate” or standard. This use of a commercial term such as rate signifies a loss of romance and also the end of the thesis as he has said that in an ideal world he spend all the time in the world to be with her however that is not the case.
The start of the antithesis is marked sharply by the word “But”. This shows that the poet is now going explain why he cannot partake in the aforementioned ways. Now the poet refers directly to the short amount of time that is left to them by adducing “Times winged chariot”. In Greek mythology, the sun was personified as the god Apollo, who rode his golden chariot from east to west each day. Thus, Marvell here associates the sun god with the passage of time. The poet then in the next line refers to time as “deserts of eternity”
This reference is in stark contrast to the idyllic and carefree portrayal of time given in previous lines. Time is now displayed as a barren and desolate desert which lasts for a painful eternity. This is meant to scare the reader in to thinking of the future where her beauty would fade and age would creep in. Marvell then goes on to morbidly remind the reader that if she continues to reject his advances her virginity would remain untouched until her “marble vault “or tomb. It would then finally be taken by the worms in the grave. This Mockery of idealized romantic poetry through crude or shocking imagery, as in lines 27 and 28 is a common trait shown in metaphysical poetry. The use of sibilance in the words “shall sound” gives an echoing effect to the words amplifying the almost prophetic tone.
Marvell starts his solution or synthesis with a classic argumentative word, therefore which signifies the start of his answer to his problem. The poet starts with a very clichéd simile, “like morning dew2. He also uses sibilance by stating “sits on thy skin” to emphasise the youthfulness of the reader and the fact that it eventually will slide down and away. He then tries to convince his coy mistress that while they are young and are both eager they should engage in intercourse as it would be freeing and enjoyable. He expounds this idea by using very positive and strong imagery for the rest synthesis. He refers to the act of intercourse itself by displaying it as animalistic and carnal by associating it to “amorous birds of prey”. Marvell then gives a sense of binding force between the man and the woman by using personification of time as the enemy who uses his “slow chapped powers” to separate them. He promotes these views by using words such as “us” or “our” which gives a sense of togetherness or amicableness. He then encourages this by implying that the force of their closeness would help them to break through the “iron grates of life”. Once again very powerful and efficacious imagery is used which shows that their bond would be strong enough to break through the restrains of life and defeat time.
Sonnet 116 is one of the most famous of the sonnets for its stalwart defence of true love. The sonnet has a relatively simple structure, with each quatrain attempting to describe what love is (or is not) and the final couplet reaffirming the poet's words by placing his own merit on the line
The opening lines of the sonnet dive the reader into the theme at a rapid pace, accomplished in part by the use of enjambment - the continuation of a syntactic unit from one line of poetry to the next without any form of pause, e.g., "Let me not to the marriage of true minds / Admit impediments ..." This gives the reader a feeling that they are actually hearing Shakespeare’s thoughts as they play out. This first quatrain asserts that true love is immortal and unchanging; the first line also describes love as the “marriage between two minds” which is an extremely romantic way of thinking of love. This is in contrast to the previous poem where there is very little romance and only focused on the short term physical side of love. By saying that love is a marriage of two minds Shakespeare take the deeper meaning of the bond, of how the two individuals are actually connected because they think and act in a similar way. Shakespeare further elucidates the strength of this bond by saying that it neither changes on its own nor allows itself to be changed, even when it encounters changes in the loved one. The exclamation “O, No” catches the reader’s attention and influences their view of love. Quatrain two embarks on a series of seafaring metaphors to further establish the permanence of true love: in line 5 it is an "ever-fixed mark," a sea mark that navigators could use to guide their course; in line 7 it is a steadfast star perhaps like the North star which offers guidance to sailors during stormy weather, this is an euphemism to the fact that even when couples fight they eventually come back to each other because they’re love would guide them. This is followed up by the claim that it cannot be measured or priced. Both of these metaphors emphasize the constancy and dependability of true love.
Finally, quatrain three nails home the theme, with love's undying essence prevailing against the "bending sickle" of Time. Sibilance is used in this line as the sound of cutting is produced when reading out the line “sickle’s compass”. Time is personified here and is shown that it does not have any control over love. This is the antipodean of the depiction of time in “To his coy mistress” where time is compared to “vast desert of eternity”. Time's "hours and weeks" are "brief" compared to love's longevity, and only some great and final destruction of apocalyptic proportions could spell its doom. There is again a reference back to the nautical imagery of quatrain two with the use of the word "compass" in line 10. The sonnet uses the traditional Iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme of the sonnet which is ABAB enhances the sonnets focus on love as it implies that it is coming from the heart. The beat resembles a heartbeat. This set rigid structure is juxtaposed with the chaos and ataxia that loves course follows.
Sonnet 116 closes with a rather hefty wager against the validity of the poet's words: he writes that if what he claims above is proven untrue, then he "never writ, nor no man ever loved." The last line is almost treated as a sign off as he dares anyone question him.
The main difference between To his coy mistress and Sonnet 116 is that To his coy mistress talks about lust while sonnet 116 is more about true love. To his coy mistress focuses on the corporeal and prurient side of love as it is a young man’s effort to convince a lady to sleep with him. The poem does this in the form of rhetoric and puts forth an argument listing the reason why he cannot spend time in romantically wooing her, gives a reason why she should be scared and he also a solution to both of their problems. Time is depicted in three different manners. First, Marvell uses “ideal time." In ideal time, he tells how many years he would spend loving her if they were given the opportunity. He explains to his mistress that if time allowed, he would spend hundreds of years just to admire her physical being. Next, he implicates”real time," to persuade her to become accessible to him. In real time, Marvell gives examples of her aging and how she will go to the grave with her pride if she doesn't give in. Finally, the use of”optimum time" plays on her emotions of how sweet the opportunity to make love to her would be. Marvell tells his mistress that the act would be almost animalistic and intense. Throughout the poem, he uses the phases of time in an attempt to frighten her into having sex with him.
However in sonnet 116, Love is not affected by time at all. In the poem love is described as not being “Times fool” and “alters not with his brief hours and weeks” Shakespeare describes love in its truest form, between two minds. Love that is more powerful than time and lasts to the bitter end. Sonnet 116 strikes readers as relatively simple. The metaphors are reasonably transparent, and the theme is quickly and plainly apparent. The overarching sentiment of true love's timeless and immutable nature is presented and developed in the first eight lines, but there is no twist at the third quatrain - rather a continuation of the theme. Even the finishing couplet the sonnet ends on is suitably lucid and lays out Shakespeare’s views as it is. The simplicity is noteworthy, and perhaps it was deliberate: Shakespeare's goal may have been unaffected candour, sincerity of conviction. However it can plainly be said that this sonnet follows the age old adage that “Love conquers all”.
