The poems have some differences as well as similarities, one of these being that “The Sunne Rising” is about personification of the sun, and how the man describes his love of his woman to the sun. “His Coy Mistress” is different as it is about a man trying to seduce the woman. This shows how the main themes are slightly different because the type of love for the two women mentioned in the poems is slightly different because, in “The Sunne Rising” the man is describing the love that he has for his woman is the long lasting and will last forever and in “His Coy Mistress” the mans love is for a woman he just met, and is trying to seduce.
Another difference between these two poems is the structure; the two poems are structured very differently, this differing structure gets the message of the mans love for the two women mentioned in the two poems differently. “The Sunne Rising” has three stanzas each ten lines long, within these stanzas there are different line structures and poetic devices such as enjambment and rhyming couplets. The lines are in twos, and there are different size lines inside the stanza small, medium and longer lines, the smallest line is in the second stanza. Though the poem there is a progression of argument. The three stanzas have different meanings, the first two stanzas are questions and the last stanza answers all these questions. In the first stanza the man is asking why the sun is intruding their privacy, in the second stanza he is asking why the sun thinks he is so great and in the third stanza these questions are answered. In “to his Coy Mistress” there are similar poetic devices such as enjambment, yet the enjambment is much longer in this poem compared to “The Sunne Rising” you can see this because the enjambment goes on for many lines whereas in “The Sunne Rising” the enjambment only last a few lines, there are also rhyming couplets in both of the poems. There are three stanzas like “The Sunne Rising”. These parts of the structure are quite similar in both poems, yet the rest of the structure is different, all the lines are around the same size, around seven words long compared to “The Sunne Rising” where there are three different line sizes. The size of the stanzas is different in “To his Coy Mistress” the first stanza is twenty lines long, the second is twelve lines long and the final stanza is fourteen lines long, in the “The Sunne Rising” the stanzas are all different lengths. The way the new stanzas are signified is different because in “The Sunne Rising” they are signified by a line gap, whereas in “To his Coy Mistress” they are signified by the first word of the stanza being indented. The meaning of the three stanzas is very different to “The Sunne Rising”. The fist section is ‘if’ saying he will praise her forever, the second is ‘but’ saying time is passing by fast and the third section is ‘therefore’ saying they should be together now. The way these two poets use different and similar structural devices to write about love gives across the same main theme of love.
These two poets use different tones in the two poems to write about love. “The Sunne Rising” uses a challenging tone to talk to the sun; this tone is also quite abusive, it is also very protective of his woman. The tone used in “To his Coy Mistress” changes with each stanza as the argument progresses. This shows another difference in the way the two poets write about love; they use different tones to transfer the feeling of love to the reader.
The poetic voice is very different in the two poems, in “The Sunne Rising” the man says “Shine here to us, and thou art every where” this is showing the mans love for his woman is very romantic, because in saying this, the man is saying the woman he is with is the whole world to him. Whereas in “To his Coy Mistress” the man says “Now let us sport us while we may” the man has assumed possession of the lady and is trying to persuade her to be with him now because time is going past fast. This puts across the mans love as less romantic than the mans love in “The Sunne Rising”. The titles of both the poems I think have a deeper meaning, “The Sunne Rising” for example, I think the mans love is represented by the sun and the rising means the growing of the mans love for his woman. “To his Coy Mistress” I believe this title could have a few meanings, I think it could mean that the man does not want full commitment from this woman, he does not want everlasting love he just wants a fun relationship, I think this is correct because of the way he tries to seduce her and the way he takes possession of her straight away. Yet the name could mean he just wants this woman to be his mistress.
Marvell uses imagery to illustrate his argument, he says “The vegetable love should grow” I think this mean their love will grown slowly and flourish into something beautiful with the nurturing of romance. This shows how Marvell uses imagery to describe the love between them, Marvell also uses imagery to describe how time is passing by fast, “Time’s winged chariot hurrying near” this gives the picture that time is moving fast and so should their love. Marvell uses imagery to help persuade and seduce the woman. Donne also uses imagery, “shine here to us, and thou art every where, This bed thy centre is, these walls, thy sphere.” This is saying that if you shine here sun you are shining on my whole world, this room is my world and my woman is the centre of it. This shows how Donne uses imagery to illustrate the mans love for the woman and how he feels about her. This shows how both writers feel that imagery is a good way to get feelings across within a progressing argument.
These two poems have similarities in structure, poetic voice, use of imagery, tone and in the use of themes. Yet both poems also have difference in these same areas. In “The Sunne Rising” he already has his woman and in “To his Coy Mistress” he is trying to seduce the woman. I believe “The Sunne Rising” by John Donne was the more successful poem because I thought the author got the mans feelings for the woman across to the reader better.