How do the three poems 'To His Coy Mistress', 'The Sick Rose' and 'Sonnet 138' convey the imperfect nature of love?

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How do the three poems ‘To His Coy Mistress’, ‘The Sick Rose’ and ‘Sonnet 138’ convey the imperfect nature of love?

Each of the three poems conveys the imperfect nature of love in one way or another. Personally I feel that love can never be perfect as there are always going to be arguments that arise in any relationship. I think that two people can love each other but it will never be perfect unless there is complete trust and understanding in all situations. Another reason is that there is no such thing as perfection so therefore everything can always be better.

The three poems that I am comparing are ‘To His Coy Mistress’, Andrew Marvell (1621-78), ‘The Sick Rose’, William Blake (1757-1827) and ‘Sonnet 138’, William Shakespeare (1564-1616) None of the poems portray a romantic idea of love, but more the dark side of it. Each shows a different aspect of love. However they all show that love is not perfect.

Although each poem deals with the imperfect nature of love, they each have their own diverse theme. ‘To His Coy Mistress’ is about sexual desire and basically the poet trying to get his mistress into bed. In this poem the man is trying to persuade and pressure the woman. We then have a poem that can also be interpreted as sexual. An example of the sexual implications of te poem is however this poem’s interpretation is more down to the reader and how they view it. Even with its many interpretations ‘The Sick Rose’ essentially gives a warning about the dangers that love can bring. The third poem has no similarities within the theme as the others do. ‘Sonnet 138’ deals with the imperfect nature of love through the form of lies within a relationship. We can see similarities between the themes of ‘To His Coy Mistress’ and ‘The Sick Rose’ as they both convey the sexual side of love.

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We are still able to relate to all of the poems today in one way or another, although possibly some interpretations may be different today. This is because the poems were written a long time ago and therefore we see things differently. However they all portray a timeless idea as peoples emotions have not completely changed.

‘To His Coy Mistress’ is still able to be related to today as there is always time when a man or woman will be trying to get someone into bed with them. Today sex is still a potentially difficult area in ...

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