Two Poems on How Men and Women Think and Behave Differently in Relation to Love
Summary:
Both Andrew Marvell's poem "To His Coy Mistress" and Martyn Lowery's poem "Our Love Now" examine the subject of unrequited love. In their own ways, the poems represent the degree to which men and women often exhibit different thought patterns, behaviors, and attitudes when they ar in love.
In this essay I am going to be discussing and comparing how Andrew Marvell and Martyn Lowery authors of the poems 'To His Coy Mistress' and 'Our Love Now' and how they approached and wrote a poem showing the difference between men and women's attitudes about love. In my essay I am going to be focusing on two poems that I mentioned previously 'To His Coy Mistress' and 'Our Love Now'. These two poems have many differences and similarities. Two similarities they share are that both poems seem to be focused on love and a relationship between two people this is very clear to see for the reader, another similarity they share is that one person in the poem is certainly more dominant but yet persuasive. The main focus in this essay is going to be to compare both poems to see how the poets have represented how differently men and women behave when in love and how different there attitudes appear to be.
In both poems the main focus is unrequited love. The speakers in the poem both appear to be talking to someone they love, we know this as in Marvell's poem 'To His Coy Mistress' The speaker is giving a lot of compliments and flattery obviously to other person in the relationship an example of this is "I would love you ten years before the flood: And you should, if you please, refuse, Till the conversation of Jews" in this quote the speaker mention a flood the speaker is referring to Noah a part belonging to Genesis in the Bible. The speaker is saying how he has loved this person since then. Next the speaker refers "Jews" Referring to these to religions is just a way to tell her that he would love and praise her during a very long time before getting into any kind of sexual intercourse with her. This quote shows that Marvell has used interesting but effective imagery to create this effect.
In comparison we also know that in "Our Love Now" it is also clear to see that the speaker is directing this poem at the other person in the relationship firstly as the whole poem is set out as a conversation structure as "I said", "She Said." The speaker also mentions there love more than once "Such is our love, such is our love."
The tone into Marvell's poem is very persuasive, calm and collective as he is trying to persuade whoever he is talking to too to have sexual intercourse with him. In comparison the tone varies in Lowery's poem as he seems very sincere, reassuring, apologetic but also subtly persuasive. In both poems both speaker is trying persuasive techniques an example form Marvell's poem is "A hundred years should go to praise Thine eyes, and on thy forehead" He is using flattery here. An example form Lowery's poem is "Observe how the wounds heals in time, how the skin slowly knits and once more becomes whole" Here Lowery's using a reassuring tone and emotive words.
In Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress' the speaker is clearly trying to persuade the other person in the poem as he uses many persuasive techniques such as imagery, flattery, short sentences, and he's also over exaggerates things (hyperbole). An example of Marvell's persuasive techniques is "This coyness, lady, were no crime. We would sit down, and think which way, To walk and pass our long love's day." This quote is using mass flattery to try and persuade the other person in the poem to sleep with him, and lose there virginity to the speaker.
This is the complete article, containing 597 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
