Secondly, I would like to talk about ‘To his Coy Mistress’. This poem is very much the same as ‘The Flea’ and has many similarities. Again the poem is based upon a man trying to get a woman to go to bed with him, and is too set in the 17th century.
The poem is split into three stanzas and each of them differs from the next, although still trying to get across the same message. In the first verse the poet is trying to flatter the woman by using complimentary language and words such as, “a hundred years should go to praise, thine eyes, and on they forehead gaze”. He also uses the ‘if only’ argument, to try and make the idea of sex before marriage less awful.
In the second stanza, the poet tries to scare the woman, by saying that her beauty won’t always last and that time is of the essence, using such phrases as, “thy beauty shall no more be found”.
By the third stanza he is again persuading her by saying that they should hurry up and have sex before it is too late and that the life will not last forever and that she should not waste her beauty or virginity to her grave.
The language throughout the whole of the poem is very extravagant and exaggerated. I also think that this poet has been very cunning and clever in the language he uses, the way he uses it and also the way he has set out his arguments.
Lastly, I would like to write about ‘Rapunzstiltskin’. This poem is very much more modernised in terms of writing style and language, it is also set in modern day although it tries to represent the story as a parody of other poems.
The poem, at first glance, appears very similar to ‘To His Coy Mistress” and ‘The Flea’ in terms of its structure. It is a long poem, which is not broken up into stanzas and, unlike the other two poems, it tells a story. However, the similarities do not stop there because whilst the two pre-twentieth century poems are very traditional in terms of their language and structure. The poet deliberately makes her poem very untraditional. It has not got an even syllable pattern so has no even rhythm. The line lengths vary greatly from three syllables to fourteen.
The poet deliberately turns the fairytale stereotypes on their heads – the prince is portrayed as totally helpless whilst in the end it is the beautiful maiden who performs the act of physical strength by tearing herself in two out of frustration. The ending is also very untraditional and surprising. A large amount of the poem’s meaning seems to be tied up with the idea that men and women can’t communicate effectively. It is as if they speak a different language. The Prince simply can’t understand what the maiden wants. This breakdown in communication and understanding is shown in several ways. The Prince speaks only in romantic clichés as when said ‘I’ll do everything in my power’ he intoned, ‘but the impossible (she groaned) might take a little longer.’
The woman is shown at first to be coming to enjoy her independence in the tower but she is quite pleased when the Prince turns up, as ‘he did look sort of gorgeous axe and all’. She obviously doesn’t hold out much hope that this man will be any better or different from the rest ‘she had not been brought up to look for originality and gingerbread’. She decides however, to give him a chance even though she recognizes that her romantic hopes are ‘corny’. We quickly get a sense of her anger as he proves to be less than adequate ‘ shimmying in & out every other day as though he owned the place’. He shows interest in only one thing and expects her to do all the work and ‘weave the means of her own escape’. She is patient and encouraging at first, holding out hope that she might be able to guide him towards something at least a little closer to her idea of what a man should be like. However, he fails completely in this respect and she ends up speechless with frustration and tears herself in two.
I think all in all when love is concerned in poetry nowadays it is a bit of a mockery and no one ever takes it that seriously. People think that love is something to be laughed at and never something to be admired. So I think love poems have changed a lot, although there are still some poets who have the right idea.
