The language Marvell uses in this poem to express himself is impeccable and it used language that gives great imagery such as “two hundred to adore each breast” and “while thy youthful hue sits on thy skin like morning dew.” Marvell is also very convincing in the first stage of the poem towards the woman saying how if he had the time he would take two hundred years to adore each breast and thirty thousand for all the rest of her body, but then in the second stage he argues his case that he doesn’t have the time and if he did, he would do those things but he cant.
The poem itself is divided into three stages where the poet is expressing himself differently in each one. In the first stage he gives an adoring feeling towards the mistress through flattery and how he if he had the time he would adore each part of her body for as long as he could “two hundred to adore each breast”.
In the second stage he gradually becomes impatient, still following the idea that he would love her for eternity but that clearly don’t have that sort of time.
He also adds the gruesome fact that if she dies a virgin the worms will take her long preserved virginity, “then worms shall try that long-preserved virginity.”
The third stage is a plea from Marvell to his mistress asking her for a chance to get together but while she’s still young and youthful, he also gets on to the subject how she should grab the opportunity while they have the chance.
The sheer brilliance in this poem to disguise so much unpleasantness into a love poem was Marvell’s style of being a balanced but argumentative writer, this poem falls perfectly into his writing category. The fulsome flattery employed by Marvell is rejected by Shakespeare’s Sonnet CXXX.
Sonnet CXXX is a classic Shakespeare sonnet and is well renowned for it’s anti-sonnet feeling. It has all the forms of a traditional sonnet as it has fourteen lines, iambic pentameter and rhyming couplets but works against all sonnet’s as it is an attack at all poet’s who tend to put women on a pedestal.
Shakespeare who was of course the greatest English writer of all time and in this sonnet he has proved this.
Some would presume that this sonnet was addressed to his “lover” but this would seem a bit strange as it isn’t admiring her in a way that her beauty is exaggerated, so she might not have been too impressed with this sonnet. Otherwise this poem would have been addressed to other poets who largely exaggerated the beauty of their “lovers “ to please them. Shakespeare is showing that his lover is not perfect but he still loves her and that is the most important thing to both of them.
In this Sonnet Shakespeare proves the brilliance of his writing by describing his lover bleakly and getting away with it which makes him such an admired writer.
In love poems skin and breasts would often be described as pure white which would show that the women had perfect skin, however Shakespeare describes her skin and breasts as ‘dun’ which is a brownish colour. “If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun.”, this bring the reader to reality as this is often the colour of people’s skin in that era.
Shakespeare uses such metaphors as “If hair be wires, black wires grow on her head,” this also gives us a sense of imagery and we can start to imagine what the mistress would look like.
A brilliant quote was made on this poem by Anthony Burgess: Shakespeare “looks at his mistress with eyes clearer than is proper for a lover….(He) reacts violently against the romantic exaggeration current in so many love lyrics….It is an honest poem but it is impossible to imagine any woman being pleased with it….It is easier to think of Shakespeare addressing this Sonnet to a young man guilty of over praise.”
This quote explains the whole Sonnet and gives an excellent idea of who Shakespeare was addressing the poem to, it also gives Burgess’s opinion on the poem. This poem is often described as an anti-sonnet and after reading it quickly gather the meaning of the poem where tit is a different case to The Sick Rose.
A very different perspective can be gathered from this poem compared to Sonnet CXXX and ‘To His Coy Mistress’.
The poet William Blake was one who was aware of political and religious oppression and the suffering of the poor although he was quite well off. Blake’s metaphors are used wisely and can have different interpretations meaning often a reader would be confused until they had read the poem a few times and reviewed all of the possible meanings.
The poem begins with ambiguity often mentioning the word ‘rose’ which could be a flower of a woman’s name which could leave the reader confused.
‘The bed of crimson joy’ could be referring to a sexual encounter as the crimson joy could be referring to a woman’s sex organs.
It is difficult to tell who the poem is addressed to but this could be someone writing down their feelings on an event and releasing their anger through their writing, however it could be an act of revenge from someone to their lover because they may have betrayed them.
The rose is a sign of passion and Blake could have deliberately added this to the poem to show that their was passion involved i.e. a sexual encounter.
It was often presumed in these times that men would be the ones who would sleep around and women wouldn’t, in the present it can be known from both men and women but the difference is that if men sleep around they are often known as ‘studs’ but if women were to do the same things they would be known as a ‘slag’. This can go to show how all things in today’s society are still not politically correct and different opinions can be taken up just because you are a different sex.
This is a short poem with plenty of metaphysical language such as ‘’Thy bed of crimson joy’ and ‘his dark secret love’ which gives the poem a lot of depth and feeling.
While The Sick Rose may be expressing it anger to the supposed affair that is addressed in it Sonnet CXXX is also showing it’s anger towards other poets and how that may over exaggerate a woman’s looks and Shakespeare shows his outrage at this.
Sonnet CXXX and ‘To His Coy Mistress’ have very similar but opposite outlines to them as Shakespeare is showing his mistress how she really is, while Marvell is putting her on a pedestal he seems to be really kind and adoring but we later find out that he only want’s her for her body and actually shows himself as an unpleasant character, but Shakespeare gives off the feeling that he is being brutal to his mistress but it turns out that he is being adoring because he shows that she’s not perfect but he still loves her. Marvell gives off a sense of reverse psychology in his poem with his gruesome touches such as the example where he describes how the worms would take her long preserved virginity so it is more likely to bring the mistress closer to Marvell, while Sonnet CXXX you would expect the mistress to be upset with Shakespeare after writing it and they might drift apart.
‘To His Coy Mistress’ have basic structures while they both have rhyming couplets Marvell’s'’ poem is meant to be read at speed so the reader gets the sense of the poem, but Sonnet CXXX is meant to be read at a slow and relaxed speed as it has an iambic pentameter.
All three poems have shown their themes of lust, lust and relationships and have at least one of them featured in the poem.
These poems can teach us a lot about love, lust and relationships and how they aren’t always so popular among certain people, but when they do work out people can be exhilarated and joyful.
They also show us that in the time that these poems where written people had different views on love, lust and relationships than we do today and have to respect that they might have had different opinions on them.
These poems might not have always been respected at the era they were written, but today the brilliance of writing in these poems have earned them the respect they deserve.
