To His Coy Mistress
“To His Coy Mistress” is a poem written by the English poet and satirist Andrew Marvell. It was written in the 1650s but was not published until the 1680s, after the poet’s death. It is metaphysical poetry. Mr. Marvell is considered as one of the great poets of the metaphysical verse through his propensity to sense, interest in the controversy, using allusions properly, and fabulous utilization of metaphysical conceits. In Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” the theme of love is depicted both physically and spiritually. In this poem, the poet loves a lady platonically. It can be concluded from using “mistress” instead of “lover”.In the first stanza of it, he explains his fondness to her. He uses “Ganges” which is a holy place in India to portray her place and “Humber” which is a river in England to clarify his location. By using these allusions, he depicts west and east. Also, he says that they have no time and that is the problem (crime and therefore they need to be together. Then he shows her adoration to the lady asserting he could love her before the beginning and he would love her even if she refuses him. He uses the “vegetable love” phrase which is a “phallic” symbol stating that he loves her body which means he wants to have a sexual relationship with her. After these praises, he says that she deserves all of them and he cannot love her at a lower rate. So, from the first stanza, the poet tries to explain how much he wants her. In the second and third stanzas, he says they are coming to the end and thus they need to hurry before they die. Furthermore, he tells her that her beauty will not be found in her grave and if she continues to protect her virginity, the worms will take it and eat her body. Therefore, he calls the lady into action and says they need to sport which means they should have children while they are still young. Finally, in the last stanza, he states that they should enjoy the day and do not allow the time to captivate them. Also, he expresses that they should combine and be one body. From this line, we can say that sexuality is on the ground. In the final lines, he enunciates that they cannot stop the time but they can change how it works. Considering these lines we can conclude that it is also a “Carpe Diem” poem. All in all, regarding these evidences from the poem, we can definitely say that theme of love in the poem is portrayed uniquely.
Turning Lover Into Immortal One
“The Sonnet 18” is a sonnet written by English poet and playwright William Shakespeare in the 1590s. It comprises 14 lines like his other sonnets. It is one of the best known among them. He wrote it to his “fair youth”. It marks a change of immortality by means of procreation. In William Shakespeare’s sonnet “The Sonnet 18” the theme of beauty is compared to natural objects and divinity. Also, regarding the words “his” and “him” we can infer that his fair youth is a young man. He uses cliché beauty standards such as blonde hair, shiny eyes, etc. turning into blozen conventions. It can be seen from the first line. In there, he compares his lover to the sun using metaphor. However, he denies to compare him to the sun as he knows that his beloved’s beauty is unchanging and timeless, He states that even the sun’s beauty will fade away so everyone will lose their beauty as they are mortal, and also his lover’s will fade. In there, mortality is signified. Besides, he asserts that summertime is very short. At first, it can be seen as just a description, yet he underlines the destructive power of time in this line. According to him, due to the natural cycle, each person will lose their fairness because they will get older. So the main idea from the lines is that there is an end for beauty in the world. However, in the third quatrain, there is another idea. He expressed that his fair youth will lose his beauty but not lose his fairness even if he is mortal since Shakespeare immortalizes him thorough in his eternal lines. Even the death or natural courses cannot take away his beauty as it is concrete in his lines. In the final couplet, he signifies that thanks to his lines, his fair youth will live forever until the last man remains on earth and reads it. This means that by reading this sonnet even today, we give life to his faith youth. In conclusion, taking into these clues, we can say that the theme is beauty, immortal beauty in this sonnet. He states that so long as man lives, art will live too. This is because he knows that his beloved’s beauty is unchanging and eternal.
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