“Themes of Love”

William Shakespeare’s poem “Sonnet 29”, and Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress”, have quite a few similarities. The most common being the theme of love. Shakespeare and Marvell put the most powerful of all human emotions into words in these poems. “Sonnet 29” is a poem in which the speaker complains about his misfortunes until “thee” comes to mind, and his state is instantly transformed. “To His Coy Mistress” is a poem meant to convince the speaker’s mistress to let go of her inhibitions, while incorporating the theme of Carpe Diem. These poets use similar strategies of figurative language, while each poem’s message is uniquely different.

Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 29” employs the basic 14-line iambic pentameter structure of a sonnet. As we begin to read this poem, the speaker is complaining, in an almost whining manner, about his outcast state; which could bear some...