How do Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress and John Donne's The Sunne Rising compare as love poems?

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Jonathan Hobbs        Page         5/1/2007

How do Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress and John Donne's The Sunne Rising compare as love poems?

John Donne and Andrew Marvell may both be classified as metaphysical poets, yet their immediate style, feeling and argument presentation differs vastly.  Most noticeably, the poems are written in strikingly different manners with Donne's rebellious and unruly non-uniform line lengths contrasting with Marvell's almost fully justified column of words.  Andrew Marvell has also used the rigid iambic pentameter and a simple aa/bb/cc... rhyming scheme as opposed to Donne's far more complex arrangement.  Although both poems are alike in that they both have three verses, each one differs by the way the poet sets out his argument and addresses the reader.  In To His Coy Mistress, Marvell opens with a well structured and hopefully compelling line of reasoning utilising gentle flattery and hyperbole to persuade his mistress.  As well as the feeling of space and time, Marvell concentrates on the physical features of the woman he wants to woo and desires to spend "Two hundred [years] to adore each breast".  The initial stanza is fairly slow-paced and relaxed as Marvell develops the foundation for his viewpoint.  The final two lines -

For, lady, you deserve this state;

Nor would I love at lower rate.

summarise his statement succinctly.  The second stanza simply offers the not-particularly-profound idea that death is inevitable.  Contrasting strongly with the first stanza, Marvell uses sharp and more caustic language to get his point across.  There is an almost threatening sense of urgency with "Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near" and the tempo increasing a notch.  Again, the shock-tactics are summarised with the last couplet:

The grave's a fine and private place,

But none, I think do there embrace.

Marvell uses the final verse to offer his conclusion to the argument, and he starts with the word "therefore".  He seems to believe that, after setting out his logical case, the lady will now be compelled to agree.  After highlighting the main points of his reasoning, Marvell sets it out in an understandable way finishing again with the synopsis of the last couplet:

Thus, while we cannot make our sun

Stand still, yet we will make him run.

Crudely put, Andrew Marvell's poem is solely about persuading his reticent mistress to sleep with him.  He accuses her of being too coy and that, as they do not have "but world enough, and time", it is wrong to delay the act any longer.  Marvell seems to structure the poem to ensure his success relying on the logic of his argument to persuade his mistress and carefully arranges every word to help her overcome her inhibitions.

Donne however, sets about his task in a drastically different way.  It is not as carefully structured - perhaps as he is less purposeful - but intellectual and witty nonetheless.  The first verse shows Donne's annoyance at the interfering sun and he tells it to "goe chide" others.  Donne explains that "Love,...no season knowes" implying the timelessness of the love between him and his wife.

The second verse has Donne laying out his argument, giving reasons and using his powers of persuasion to try and convince the sun.  He explains why "her sight" is so precious:

Whether both the'India's of spice and Myne

Be where thou leftst them, or lie here with mee.

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In his final stanza, Donne becomes more extravagant, claiming "compar'd to this/All honor's mimique; All wealth alchemie".  He explains his main point that the sun need not warm the whole earth anymore but just him and his lady - all that matters.  Together, they are the world.

Donne's poem does not focus on his mistress as much as Marvell's - more on the all-powerful sun to which it is addressed.  He tells the "unruly" sun to leave him and his lady alone to revel in their togetherness and wants to fully portray the extent of their love for ...

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