“Thou by the Indian Ganges' side
Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood;
This shows that seventeenth century love was beautiful; by comparing the two rivers, of which one is beautiful and holy, he creates the idea of long time. The comaprision of the two rivers also compares their love. Because he uses the beautiful, Ganges, and the unpleasant Humber, to show this. Also religion is also brought into this by mentioning the flood; this is the flood that that was mentioned in the story of Noah.
As well as using beautiful imagery the narrator uses unpleasant imagery to scare the woman,
“Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long preserv'd virginity,”
Here the imagery of death is brought in and the narrator says that no beauty will be found in her as she is dead. “then worms shall try That long preserv'd virginity,” The imagery of the worms is very unpleasant as the narrator says that if he does not take her virginity then the worms will when she is dead. Therefore if they don’t have sex now then they only grow old and die. Then instead of her lover it will be the worms that penetrate her. This is one way the speaker tries to get his lover ion bed.
This is also the same in The Flea when the narrator wants to take the lovers virginity. The narrator in The Flea also tries to scare the lover just as the narrator in To His coy Mistress. Even though we do not know for certain if it is a male or female speaker, we assume that it is a male speaker as the narrator talks of the lover’s maidenhead. Whereas in To His Coy Mistress we know that it is a male speaker as it says “This coyness, lady, were no crime” it also says “Two hundred to adore each breast,” these show that it is a male speaker and a female lover.
The Flea is written the same way as To His Coy Mistress as the narrator is trying to get his lover into bed. The poet is again is trying to get his lover into bed with him. In this poem the narrator uses a flea as an argument to persuade the woman to sleep with him. The poet is saying that their blood has been mingled in the flea, so there is nothing wrong in sleeping with each other as their blood has already mingled. In the seventeenth century, people believed that during sexual intercourse the blood mingled,
“It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.
Thou know'st that this cannot be said”
The poet is saying that their two bloods has mingled as the flea sucked his blood first and then sucked the woman’s blood their blood has mingled, he is saying that they should do it for real as well, as in a way they have slept with each other in the flea as their blood has mingled.
The poet then uses religion to try and get her to sleep with him.
“This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.”
He is saying that this flea is their marriage bed, and uses faith to back up his argument. He also says “marriage bed” to make the lady think that what they are doing is right. He makes as if they are married. Also by saying this he is stating that they will do no wrong as they are married already due to their blood mingling in the flea. If you are married to the woman it is not wrong to have sex with her.
He also tries to subdue the lady my making her look guilty:
“And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.
Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?”
He says that by killing the flea she has committed a sin. This is because as he says, she has killed him, her and the flea itself. This is because all three of their blood was in the flea. By killing the flea she destroys the narrator’s argument however the lover says that she has not done good to her honour, because the speaker uses the flea to create the whole argument. The marriage bed and temple is destroyed. He uses
Another poem I have studied is, Porphyria’s Lover, by Robert Browning in 1836. The poem is written in the first person, and illustrates many different aspects of love. The author uses the speaker and sets out his actions to convey his argument.
The speaker lives in a cottage in the countryside. His lover, a blooming young woman named Porphyria, comes in out of a storm and proceeds to make a fire and bring cheer to the cottage.
The rain set early in tonight,
The sullen wind was soon awake,
It tore the elm-tops down for spite,
and did its worst to vex the lake:
I listened with heart fit to break.
When glided in Porphyria; straight
She shut the cold out and the storm,
The author uses oxymoron to describe the weather when his lover arrives in, “set early in tonight”. This describes the times of the day, he says its just after sun set. She came during the night, when no one is around. Since she calmed everything, he thinks she loves love him. He also confuses the reader, “I listened with heart fit to break”.
When they are inside the cottage she embraces the lover. He tells us that he does not speak to her. Instead, he says, she begins to tell him how she has momentarily overcome society to be with him and how much she loves him.
“And all her yellow hair displaced,
And, stooping, made my cheek lie there,
And spread, o'er all, her yellow hair,
Murmuring how she loved me--she
Too weak, for all her heart's endeavour,
To set its struggling passion free
From pride, and vainer ties dissever,
And give herself to me forever.”
In this verse I find out that she loves him but he doesn’t, she makes love to him and says how much she loves him and all the trouble she has been through to be here with him. The author uses rhyming couplets and word repetition to show this.
He realizes that she worships him at this instant. She had surmounted the society to come and see him.
“Happy and proud; at last I knew
Porphyria worshiped me: surprise
Made my heart swell, and still it grew
While I debated what to do.”
The author uses reptile imagery to shows the emotions of the speaker. The speaker also realises that he is worshipped by his lover; this is because he says, that she had overcome society to just come and see him. It also took him a long time to decide that she loved him.
However, he also thinks that she will eventually give into the society’s pressure and leave him. Therefore he decides to kill her.
“That moment she was mine, mine, fair,
Perfectly pure and good: I found
A thing to do, and all her hair
In one long yellow string I wound
Three times her little throat around,
And strangled her. No pain felt she;”
He kills her so that she could be with him forever, and here the idea of obsession is conveyed by the author. He realises that she will one day not come and kills her to keep her with him. He kills her with her own hair.
He then toys with her corpse, opening the eyes and propping the body up against his side. He sits with her body this way the entire night, the speaker remarking that God has not yet moved to punish him.
“And thus we sit together now,
And all night long we have not stirred,
And yet God has not said a word!”
He stays with her the whole night without moving and sleeping with her dead body. This shows he does not care whether she is dead or alive as long she is there he is happy. He makes reference to God not punishing him, this means that what he had done was good and for the good of the society because she overcome the society to see him. Here the poet is trying to teach others like Porphyria a lesson.
The poets of pre 1914 poems have explored many different aspects of love using different ideas. In To His Coy Mistress the idea of lust and persuasion can be seen. The same can be seen in The Flea as well as persuasion. However Porphyria’s Lover conveys the idea of obsession. The authors achieve this by using imagery, rhyming couplets, and oxymoron words.
