Although both poet’s intention is the same to seduce their mistress, there is a subtle difference between the two poems. We know this because he says in, ‘To his coy mistress’, Marvell states, ‘Had we but would enough, and time.’ Line 1. This is showing me that the poet is trying to say to his mistress that they have a life together and time is what they have. But the poet knows they haven’t got time on their side. So time isn’t everything that they have together.
Secondly the similarities between Marvell’s ‘To his coy mistress’ and Donne’s ‘The flea’ are they both have the same form. This is shown by both poems are written with three stanzas which is common for an argument poem that these two poems are. It is evident that not all poems are written in the same way. For example Robert Browning ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ is written in one stanza and is a narratue poem. William Shakespeare wrote a 14-line sonnet love poem. So it shows that there are different kinds of love poems.
These argument poems ‘To his coy mistress’ and ‘The flea’ have the same form but are meaning different things. Marvell’s ‘To his coy mistress’ is all about the poet trying to seduce his mistress otherwise she’ll die a virgin. In Donne’s ‘The flea’ the poet is telling you how he wants to bed her thanks to the flea. But his mistress in the last stanza is fighting back by killing the flea. I know she fights back by, ‘Find’st not thyself, nor me the weaker now’. This shows that the poet’s lover is telling the poet that he will not seduce her, as the flea hasn’t done anything to bring them closer together.
A further similarity between the two seduction poems is the use of the poet’s language. Both poems use frequent use of imagery particularly with Metaphors. In ‘The flea’ by Donne, the poem itself has a metaphor and that is the flea. As for Marvell’s verse he saw ‘yonder all before us lie/ Desert of vast eternity.’ There the author is describing that there is a desert. This means that the poem is about time and the life they have together. It’s like one of those hourglasses with falling sand and time in one. Both poets therefore use imargey to bring their points forward in the poems.
A difference in the language used is the Biblical references that Marvell uses in ‘To his coy mistress’. With the use of the biblical references it has brought a meaning to the verse. This is shown by, ‘Love you ten years before the flood.’ This is showing that Marvell might be religious and has referred to Noah’s Ark because he tries to tell his mistress that he is intelligence and he is worldliness so he can win her over. But in Donne’s ‘The flea’ he uses religious words to describe his love. An example for this the use words like, ‘married’ and ‘Temple’. The reason for this is because as the flea has bitten both people, the poet is saying that they are closer together and are married because of that flea. So the use of the religious words is to say that the flea has married Donne and his lover by the exchange of blood.
Another difference in the two poems is in Marvell’s verse is at the end. He has used rhyming couplets with a meaning. This is shown as, ‘Thus, through we cannot make our sun/stand still, yet we will make him run.’ This quotation shows that he is saying that they can run into the sun and enjoy themselves for the short time that they have together before they die. In Donne’s verse he uses rhyming couplets to put across his argument.
Instead Donne just puts a straightforward rhyming couplet which is shown as, ‘Just so honour, when thou yield’st to me/ Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee.’ These just shows that now the lover has killed the flea and has just meant that the time they could have had as a ‘married couple’ has been destroyed, forever. The poet now is lost for words as his lover has taken control of the argument. This shows that the lover will not stand for Donne’s witty way of trying to win her over and to sleep with her.
The final similarities between Marvell and Donne’s poems are in my reaction. The first similarity in my reaction is they both want the same thing. Now that same thing is sex. Back in the 17th century men were then in control of things. This is called patriarchal society, this means in control of women. Also women back in that time were not respected for who they were. As Marvell and Donne had patriarchal society over women, they just did not respect them. Marvell and Donne just used their mistress for sex. An example of this is, ‘my echoing song; them worms shall try/ that long preserved virginity’ from ‘To his coy mistress’. This shows that the lover should have sex with the poet as she is going to die a virgin. In Donne’s ‘The Flea’ an example of patriarchal society is, ‘It suck’d me first, and now sucks thee/ and in this flea, our two bloods mingled be.’ This shows that the patriarchal society those men would have and now the exchange of blood has married them together forever.
Differences in the poems on my reactions are that in Marvell’s, ‘To his coy mistress’ I think that the poet has a sick mind trying to seduce his mistress because he just doesn’t want her to die a virgin and to let the worms to have her which is disgusting. But in Donne’s ‘The flea’ the poet doesn’t understand what his lover wants but knows want the poet wants, and that is sex. Donne uses a flea that has bitten both of them and has exchanged blood to marry them. So Donne thinks there married so it’s ok to have sex together as they are Mr and Mrs. But his lover argues back saying that they are not at all married and just that the flea has bitten both them, has not brought them together. So in both verses the poets had the same intention but different uses of language and the form was both a form of an argument poem, not like ‘Porphyiar’s Lover’ by Browning and Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 18’. But my reaction too both are different in the two poems.
As you can see the poets think along the same lines but use there own ways to seduce their mistress back in patriarchal society. Now a day’s relationships are a two way thing. This means the two people can make up their own minds, not just the men. So in all it’s equally balanced in a relationship.
To conclude, I believe that Marvell and Donne had generally similar ideas. This is shown by sharing the same, aim of the verse, the structure and language are also the same. However what would you have done back in the 17th century? And what do you think of the poet’s back then now in the 21st century? I’ll leave that to you to think about, how women were treated for the use of sex and not treated for their personality.
Nicola Bryant 10B
English
