Examine the Themes of Relationship in To His Coy Mistress and Valentine

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Examine the Themes of Relationship in To His Coy Mistress and Valentine In my essay, I will be examining the theme of relationships in To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell and Valentine by Carol Anne Duffy. I will write about the poems themes’, ideas, structure and linguistic devices. I will compare and contrast each poem, then give my opinion on my favourite and why.                                                                   Andrew Marvell wrote his poem, To His Coy Mistress in the 16th century. The poem has three stanzas and is written in rhyming couplets. It is about a man who is in a rush to have sexual intercourse with his mistress. He is lured by her beauty and wants to enjoy her beauty before the time is over. He presents a familiar theme in literature – carpe diem (meaning seize the day), he uses this as he tries to seduce a woman and declare his love for her, while she his shy and hesitant, he tries to persuade her to think that they must take advantage of the moment.                 There are two themes in the poem, carpe diem and seduction. ‘Time’s winged chariot hurrying near;’ Here, he tells his mistress that time is flying so they should have sex now and seize the day, he is rushing her and trying to charm her by telling her to make the most of the time they have. The seduction theme is mostly implied in the third stanza, ‘through the iron gates of life.’ He refers to her hymen being broken and her virginity being taken as they make love. ‘Let us roll our strength... up into one ball,’ he wants them to be entwined and wrapped together as they have sex and have a connection.                                                 Line 11 shows the young man who is pleading for the young lady to stop playing hard to get and accept his love, compare his love to a vegetable.  ‘My vegetable love should grow,’ He could be using the vegetable as a phallic symbol to refer to his penis growing as he gets an erection. However, he could be referring to his love growing for
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her as it is nurtured like a vegetable by love and feeling so that it flourishes. He mocks romantic poetry through crude imagery in Lines 27 and 28, ‘then worms shall try that long preserved virginity.’ He is persuading her by making her think that if she leaves it until she is old and dead and doesn’t have sex with him now, or the worms will be the only things that will get benefit of her body. As they eat her, they will take her virginity with them.                                                                                        Marvell uses a gross example of hyperbole in Line 15, ‘two hundred ...

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