“But” he uses this word to start a second stanza meaning there is a contrast. After spending the first stanza flattering her and telling her what he would do he now tells her why he won’t do what he said in the first stanza. He mentions “times winged chariot hurrying near.” “Times winged chariot” is a Greek myth that a winged chariot pulled the sun across the sky. Could this mean their love is a myth? The poet uses his mistress’s fear against her “Desert of vast eternity” meaning if they don’t make love nothing lays before them. His mistress could have wanted children and like a desert she would be barren soon (can’t have children).
“Thy beauty shall no more be found
Nor, in thy marble vaults, shall sound
My echoing song”
He tells her soon she will be unattractive and he won’t declare his love for when she dead.
“Then worms shall try
That long preserved virginity,
And all quaint honour turns to dust,
And into ashes all my lust”
He mocks her virginity when he says that the worms will be the only things that will benefit from her virginity and her nice but worthless honour will disappear and so will his passion for her. By making her virginity sound pathetic and worthless he hopes to win her over.
“The graves a fine and private place
But none, I think, do there embrace”
He tells her she will be alone when she dies
He now gives her an alternative
“Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew
And while thy willing soul transpires
At ever pre with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may”
He uses this to flatter her. He says while they are young, beautiful and full of passion they should “sport” have fun (make love) while they can. He talks about devouring time “time devour” he could be talking about killing time by having fun. Rather than time slowly killing them. “Than languish in his slow-chapt power.”
In the two first stanzas he says ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘you’ now he says ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ hinting that they will become one when they make love he also mentions this when he says,
“Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball”
He talks about her chastity as the “iron gates of life” he makes it sound like a barrier to children.
“Thus, though we cannot make our son
Stand still, yet we will make him run.”
These last two lines could mean two things one he could be saying we can’t make time stop, yet will make it fly by having fun. Or it could be the word sun is a homophone of son meaning he wants a child.
Through this poem the pet has argued and persuaded his mistress using many different techniques. Time and beauty is of importance, this is similar to Shakespeare’s eighteenth sonnet “Shall I Compare Thee to a summer’s Day?”
“Shall I Compare Thee to a summer’s Day?” is a Shakespearean sonnet it starts off with a question “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” this involves the reader he then spends the rest of the poem answering the question. He says,
“Summer’s lease hath all to short a date”
He flattering her by saying that summer is too short to describe her beauty. The sun is referred to “eye of heaven” and he refers to the suns as he says the suns light and warmth is dimmed
“And often his golden complexion dimm’d”
The “golden complexion is attribute of his love compared with a trait of summer.
So far we know that the poet love is different from the love expressed by Andrew Marvell in “To His Coy Mistress”. The poet of this poem is truly in love not lust.
“And every fair from fair sometimes declines
But thy eternal summer shall not fade”
What he means is everything fair fades but her eternal beauty shall never fade and she will be beautiful for ever unlike the summer. The word but is used to start the fourth quatrain in the third quatrain he talks about eternal nature of the memory of beloved.
He says she will never loose her beauty that she possesses. Here he exaggerates but at the end of the poem he tells of another way she will keep her beauty. Even death cannot overcome her beauty because
“When in eternal lines to time thou growest”
Her beauty will now last as she has gained immortality through poetry. The last two lines are rhyming couplets.
“So long as men can breath or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee”
This means as long as man lives and can read this poem will live and this poem gives life to her.
This sonnet by Shakespeare is about how good a girl looks, is it real love? He just talks about her beauty and youth. Both these poems are about what a man wants and thinks about a woman. Unlike “A Woman to Her Lover” which states what she wants and doesn’t want from her man.
A Woman to Her Lover was written by Christina Walsh it is a love poem written form a women’s point of view and what she thinks men want from a woman. She starts by asking a question to a man “Do you come to me to bend me to your will” this suggest that she thinks men only want her to do their washing, cook for them and do other house hold chores.
“To make me a bond slave
To bear your children, wearing out my life”
She thinks men bond (marry) women to make them their slaves and have their children, wearing her out.
“If that be what you o’ lover I refuse you!”
She doesn’t want to know a man if that’s what he expects of her. She says if he thinks he will wed an angle sent from heaven to dress up and worship then he is wrong and a fool. This shows she doesn’t want to wed a man who wants her to look pretty and do no wrong.
“My body supple only for your sense delight”
It shows that he might only want her for her body alone and expect her to fulfil his physical desires.
In the final stanza she recites that if the man comes to her, loves her and doses the things he promises in the marriage vows then she will be his forever.
“But lover, lover if you ask me
That I shall be your comrade, friend and mate, to live and work to love and die with you,
That so together we may know purity and height of passion, and joy and sorrow.
Then o husband I am yours forever”
The poet talks about being friends and equals which was a new and modern concept to treat your wife as an equal back then. In this poem we see a mixture of three types of love insincere/ selfish, lust and true love.
In these three poems there are many different types of love but these are only some of the facets of love. There are many facets of love to explore and as long as love remains a complex and diverse issue these poems will continue.
