This is him saying that all of his heart and love belong to the woman he loves.
I think First Love is about Shy love. The narrator is in love with this girl, but is too shy to show his love for her.
To His Coy Mistress is about timeless love. He is trying to persuade her that they do not have enough time to wait before becoming lovers.
In the first stanza, he uses hyperbole to show how much he loves her.
“Two hundred to adore each breast.”
He is exaggerating his love for her to draw her in.
The poet places his love by the Ganges to make her look exotic and beautiful. The poet makes a comparison between the Ganges and the Humber to make him look humble. He is seeing her in an exotic place while he is in a very dull place.
“Thou by the Indian Ganges side.”
He is using the comparison to make her sound exotic and beautiful to try and draw her into him.
Marvell uses a double entendre to show him as being coy when he is actually being rude.
“My vegetable love should grow.”
Here, he is being sexually suggestive and rude but he can pretend that he is being coy. He does this so he does not offend his lady.
On line 29, he uses a double entendre to show that she will die and that her virginity will be taken away from her anyway after death.
“And your quaint honour turn to dust.”
He is being rude by saying she is going to die and trying to scare her into realising that if he does not take her virginity, the grave will.
In the second stanza, he uses vile images. The tone changes completely. It goes from him being sexually suggestive to being very nasty.
He is doing this to show her that time is going to take her away without her ever knowing love.
The horrific images he uses are trying to shock her into agreeing to sleep with him.
“And into ashes all my lust.”
The poet tries to make her feel small about her beliefs.
“That long preserved virginity.”
By doing this he is taunting her into making her want to change this.
The last stanza changes the tone again. The poem goes from being nasty and vile to more lively and active.
“Now let us sport us while we may.”
Marvell had to change the tone because if he had left it at him being horrible, she would have turned him down, so by changing the tone he is getting his message across about death without sounding too nasty.
The third stanza is about taking action.
“Rather at once our time devour.”
The message about time used in the second stanza is the same but he is being nicer about it.
The use of the tense in the poem shows the present and the future to compare the differences between the two. In the present, he is telling her how he feels about her and what he thinks they should do. The future tense comes in the second stanza and talks about what would happen if they did not get together.
The poem has a syllogistic structure to it. The first premise is that man is mortal so they do not have time to wait. The second premise is that they are mortal so they should not wait around.
“Times winged chariot hurrying near.”
The conclusion is that they should take action now. She would have been familiar with logic and would have had to accept his argument.
“Now let us sport us while we may.”
I think To His Coy Mistress is about a Haunting love. He wants her and is trying in everyway to persuade her to love him back.
Porphyrias Lover is about Psychotic Love. It is about a man who loves this girl and then kills her to preserve the perfect moment.
The poet uses pathetic fallacy to set the scene.
“It tore the elm tops down for spite.”
The weather tells us something bad is going to happen.
When porphyria comes in from the storm, the scene becomes sexually charged.
The use of verbs such as ‘Withdrew’ and ‘Laid by’ show that she is trying to seduce him.
“Withdrew the dripping cloak and shawl.”
To this, he makes no move.
“When no voice replied…”
He ignores her on purpose to push her to show more affection. He is manipulating her emotionally. This shows that he is in control of the situation.
He makes the choice to kill her. He debates what to do.
“While I debated what to do.”
This is the first sign that he is psychotic. The repetition of the word ‘Mine’ is another sign that he is mad.
“That moment she was mine, mine fair…”
This shows that he believes that he is in control of her to such an extent that he owns her.
The killing is described as very matter of fact. No emotional language is used at all.
“And strangled her.”
This tells us that the killer believes that he has done nothing wrong.
The simile on lines 42/43 describes the killing as very gentle and delicate.
“I am quite sure she felt no pain.
Like a shut bud that holds a bee.”
The image of a shut bud trapping a bee is very delicate and gentle. This is how he views his killing.
I think that Porphyrias Lover is about psychotic love. He thinks that he has done nothing wrong.
“And yet God has not said a thing.”
This way of thinking is very similar to a religion called the Antinomians who believe that they cannot sin, as they are children of God. This is the same as how the lover views his killing.
The language used in love poetry varies hugely depending on the type of love in the poem. Words that are often associated with love like ‘Heart’ and ‘Flower’ are used in softer love poems like First Love. More powerful language is used in poems like To His Coy Mistress for a persuasive argument and in shocking poems like Porphyrias Lover.
