The structures of “she dwelt among her untrodden ways” and “A slumber did my spirit seal” consist of short four lined stanzas of equal length. Monosyllabic words are also used to give the poems a simplistic feel. The rhyming scheme and punctuation show a soft and soothing tone. Which shows us Wordsworth’s genuine emotion for the death of his love Lucy.
William Wordsworth’s poem “A slumber did my spirit seal” is also about his lost love Lucy. This poem uses further descriptions of Lucy as being at one with nature. Wordsworth says, ”I had no human fears” when Lucy was alive. He felt secure and safe around Lucy and he feared nothing when he was around her. However, after her death he believes she is the “rocks, and stones, and tress.” This gives the impression that Lucy is one with nature “She rolls around earth’s diurnal course.” Like in “She dwelt among her untrodden ways” Wordsworth uses monosyllabic words through out this poem but he also uses a polysyllabic word to influence his point and make the word stand out. He uses “diurnal” instead of daily to show how much he cared for her and how much he cared about her. The title being used as the first line gives the poem a simplistic feel and puts even more emphasis on how much he loved her. Also the alliteration of the title gives it a soft and soothing tone.
The poem “To his Coy Mistress” is written by Andrew Marvell and is about his mistress who feels she is not ready to have sex with him. Marvell wrote this poem to seduce his mistress into having sex with him. Marvell uses different methods to seduce his mistress into having sex with him. Marvell uses different methods to seduce his mistress; he uses flattery and fear. He starts the poem by addressing his lover that it would be no crime to have sexual relations. This portrays the image that there is a need for physical love before its too late and that life is a game with love versus time. Marvell doesn’t see love as a serious thing he just sees it as enjoyment and something he can have with anyone. Marvell uses imagery to try to win his mistress around. He compares her to the Indian Ganges, which suggests that she is exotic and mysterious, and then he describes himself as the Humber, which gives the idea that he is much lower than her and she is too good for him. He then goes on to describe his love as “vegetable love should grow vaster then empires and more slow.” This statement gives the impression that Marvell’s love has grown slowly like a vegetable and is now bigger than an empire that tells the reader that he will love his mistress forever. Marvell then goes on to tell her that he will put in all the time in the world just to adore her, which gives the sense of flattery to the reader.
Marvell then changes the mood from romantic and passionate to a vile and morbid tone. Marvell contradicts everything he said in the first stanza by saying that he doesn’t have all the time in the world to adore her and that the time is coming closer and it is bringing old age and death with it. Her “Beauty shall no more be found” reinforces this point as it tells of the reality of death and his mistress will not stay beautiful forever. He also talks about her “preserved virginity” which will waste due to time and that they should seize the moment while they are young. This 2nd stanza is the shortest of the three stanzas, which could be to put more emphasis on how quick life is going past and how short their lives are.
Marvell then changes the mood again in the 3rd stanza to a playful, romantic and passionate tone. He does this because he is again trying to flatter her by saying that “the youthful hue sits on thy skin like morning due.” “Now let us sport while we may” is a statement that indicates Marvell’s intention when writing this poem was to get his mistress to have sex with him. This statement reinforces Marvell’s point; they should seize the moment and participate in sex while they are young and “fresh.” Marvell then uses passionate images to win over his mistress. “And tear our pleasures with rough strife” is just one of these images. The last two lines of this poem are “Thus we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run” which is in my opinion saying that they can’t stop time but they can give it a good run for its money.
After going through these poems in detail I came to the conclusion that Wordsworth and Marvell both have different views on love. Wordsworth has a genuine approach to love as we see from his poems “A slumber did my spirit seal” and “She dwelt among her untrodden ways” where he is in grievance over the death of his love Lucy. Marvell on the other hand sees love as just sex and would do almost anything to coax his mistress into having sex with him as we see in his poem “To his Coy Mistress” where he is saying he loves her then decides to scare her into having sex with him by saying that she will not be beautiful forever.
