The rhyming scheme in this poem is A,B,A,B,B.
'First Love', which is so unlike ‘Porphyria’s lover’, is about a man's first love. He describes all the physical features of when someone is in love,
"My face turned pale as deadly pale,
My legs refused to walk away,
And when she looked 'what could I ail?
My life and all seemed turned to clay."
The man is so shocked to see something so beautiful standing there before him that he cannot move and cannot speak as she takes his breath away.
Now blood had rushed to his head and he had found some words to say, his
"Blood burnt round his heart."
Although he did not say much, she heard his "silent voice". The poem finishes with,
"My heart has left its dwelling-place
And can return no more."
Which I think was love at first sight and it was, of course, his first love, and there is nothing more precious than that; and then and there he loved her and now it is no more because she is gone.
This poem is very sweet and romantic. The man seems heart broken and it seems he has missed his chance. But the way, in which the words are presented, shows how sensitive the man is, and it is a wonderful poem.
The poem is set out so that it rhymes at the end of every other line.
In this poem the writer also uses metaphors.
The Beggar Woman is about
"A gentleman in hunting rode astray,
More out of choice, than that he lost his way".
This means: - A man hunting and deliberately goes astray.
He lets his "company the hare pursue". He and his company are out hunting for hares (game), but he has other "game" in mind. "A beggar by trade", meaning prostitute, he finds and they retire to the woods.
She has a baby on her back.
He asks her, on the way to the woods, to expose but she fears his company will come. Which means she doesn’t want to expose herself to him because she is She knows a place to go, and she is asked to sit but this is not her usual trade. Should he throw her down, then she "might perhaps break more backs" than her own, she might break the baby's back.
He suggests putting the baby by but she says that then the baby will cry. She says the baby is "custom" to a back.
"Then,' says the gentleman, ‘I should be loth
To come so far and disoblige you both:
Were the child tied to me, d'ye think 'twould do?”
She immediately says yes and with mighty speed unties the baby from her and "Upon her generous friend" she put the baby. Without time for the man to realize, she was then saying goodbye. She tells him,
"To try a year or two how you'll keep this."
I think this poem is excellent. The women is teaching this man a valuable lesson- He can go round having sex with any women he wants and then not even care for the outcome. By giving him that baby, it will teach him about the responsibility and how not to take women for advantage.
In this poem, the way the male treats the female is disgraceful and typical. But in the end she teaches him a lesson he will never forget and he deserves it.
Its rhyming pattern is in couplets and has a thesis, antithesis and synthesis.
This is a metaphysical poem.
To His Coy Mistress
This is like First Love when he is telling of his love.
In the first stanza, he uses flattery.
"I would
Love you ten years before the flood"
and,
"My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires and more slow."
This is beautiful. He is saying that his love will grow like a vegetable grows, and quicker than an empire, but slower.
"A hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze.
Two hundred to adore each breast:
But thirty thousand to the rest.
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart."
He also mentions how he would never love at a lower rate, meaning he could never love anyone at a lower rate than what he loves her.
The second stanza has cruelty.
He says time's "winged chariot" is hurrying near. Which means time is running out for them two. It's now or never.
"Thy beauty shall no more be found
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song: then worms shall try
That long-preserved virginity."
Which means: - you will be ugly, and in your coffin you won't hear my song and worms shall take your virginity.
In the third stanza Marvell uses persuasion.
Now he is persuading her to come away with him because she is youthful and she is beautiful,
"Now let us sport us while we may;
And now, like amorous birds of prey."
He wants them to be as one for he loves her but she is to shy,
"Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness, up into one ball:
And tear our pleasures with rough strife,
Thorough the iron gates of life."
The writer uses many metaphors,
“And now, like amorous birds of prey.”
In this poem, the writer uses rhyming couplets, which is continuous throughout the poem.
This poem is set out like ‘The Beggar Women’, in rhyming couplets.
This poem has a thesis, if, antithesis, but, and synthesis which is so.
For the thesis he uses flattery on the women he is talking to. What he says a lot of is what would and should happen.
For the antithesis he uses cruelty, and in a way he is saying, after the if, (if we don’t do this) this will happen.
In the synthesis he uses persuasion. He is now trying his best to win her over.
The man in this poem is trying to persuade a woman to go to bed with him and pressuring her hoping that she will. He uses flattery to make her feel special and by telling her he loves her he thinks she will agree and he then uses cruelty to make her feel guilty, when all he wants to do is have sex with her.
