William Kings The Beggar Woman and To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell are both poems written in the 17th century. The Beggar Woman is a narrative poem and To His Coy Mistress a three pronged argument

In both the poems the gentlemen are off wealth and high class this is shown in 'The Beggar Woman' when the gentleman is on a horse hunting, 'He let his company the hare pursue' this is an upper class activity. The wealth and upper class of the gentleman in 'To His Coy Mistress' is shown by his language when he talks about bird of prey which are associated with upper class 'like amorous birds of prey'. In 'The Beggar Woman' the gentleman thinks he can use his higher status to make the woman have sex with him because she is a beggar woman and poor. However the beggar woman is intelligent and does not let this happen.

The relationship in both poems are based on sex, however they are slightly different because of the class of the women. In 'To His Coy Mistress' the relationship is a traditional man seducing a reluctant woman, where as in 'The Beggar Woman' the relationship is based on control over the situation wit, no love or respect. She is regarded as an animal and is compared to one 'game'.

In the poems the woman are of different class. In 'The Beggar Woman' she is poor and of low class so the gentleman thinks he can take advantage of this and hunts the woman as game 'For he himself had other game in view'. Where as in 'To His Coy Mistress' the woman is of wealth and upper class and the gentleman cannot use his status to court the woman. The woman does not speak either which shows she is intelligent and shows her status. The content of both 'The Beggar Woman' and 'To His Coy Mistress' are unconventional

The structure of 'The Beggar Woman' is conventional to its time, with regular stanzas and both poems have rhyming couplets. However 'To His Coy Mistress' is written with a regular rhythm to show development of the argument. The poem is written in three different parts, the first part acknowledging the woman's point of view, the second arguing against it and then finally summing up what he has said.

'To His Coy Mistress' starts off with a hyperbole, gross exaggeration before it gets more serious, cruel and vulgar as he says that she will be eaten by worms. Where as in 'The Beggar Woman' the poem is not serious, regular rhythm affects this and the dialogue in the poem is light hearted.

The audience for the poem would have been wealthy gentleman, who would find these poems very humorous and not take the moral of consequences into account because this is what many wealthy gentleman would have done for fun and their desires.

Josh Hartley

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