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Comparison of The Flea and To Coy His Mistress
Poems have been greatly received in our society today. Poems have a significant language which expresses the idea through form and content which are combined. The structure and rhythm of a poem fuse with the content to create a message which the poet passes to the reader. Carpe Diem poems have received backlash and support from individuals globally. The poems encourage individuals to make most on their present other than the future. The focus will be highlighted on the comparison of “The Flea” by John Donne and “His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell. The theme of Carpe Diem has been used in the poem to show different aspects of individuals in a hidden manner. The Some Individuals have criticized the poems while others have greatly appreciated the works. The comparison will show how the poems discuss the same criteria under different aspects.
In the poem “The Flea”, the title suggests that the poem will focus on the flea as an insect however, that changes as the poem progresses. The flea is used by the narrator to pursue his friend who is a lady and so the title is not necessarily relevant. The speaker has been denied something by and he uses a flea to demonstrate what he wanted. The flea sucks the blood of the narrator and his friend and he says that their bloods are mixing together. The speaker begins to bring up an argument which is common in poems of this nature. The speaker sounds jealous at the flee suggesting that it was creating romantic competition. The image of the flea is shown as it continues sucking and it swells up.” And pamper’d swells with one blood made of two/And this, alas! is more than we would do” (Line 8-9). The woman results to killing the flea and the speaker tells her not to kill it because it carries their lives. The speaker describes the flea as a temple where their blood is consecrated.
The poem shows how the parents of the lady do not approve their union. The speaker says that killing the flea will be murder because it contains their blood. “Cruel and sudden, hast thou since /Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?” (Line 19-20). The lady killed the flea and the speaker refers to her actions as cruel. He says that the flea is innocent because all that it did was to take a small drop of her blood. The lady has killed the flea and this makes her believe that she is victorious over the argument of the speaker. “Yet thou triumph’ st, and say’ st that thou /Find’ st not thyself nor me the weaker now” (Line 23-24). This reflects back to the argument they had before and the speaker concedes defeat. The lady figures out that after killing the flea, she will not be a maiden to the speaker. Imagery is used where the flea is used by the speaker to impress his lady friend. The scheme of the rhythm helps to keep track of the speaker’s argument. The speaker tries to seduce the lady by making her not to kill the flea but she is not fooled and kills it. The tone of the poem highlights feelings of frustration by the narrator.
The poem “To Coy His Mistress” shows how a young woman should enjoy her life before death. The title of the poem is not related to its theme of death and it is also similar in “The Flea”. At the beginning of the poem the speaker shows the presence of a lady. The initial tone is teasing and the speaker seems to know the lady well. The speaker starts wishing that he had more time with his mistress and says that it will not be a crime. He says that he would complement the mistress if there was adequate time. The narrator tells the lady that they do not have tine and they are about to die because life is short and if she does not sex with him worms will take her virginity after she dies (Line 27-28). The narrator states that there will be effects on him and if the lady refuses to have sex with him his lust will burn to ashes.
The narrator uses death to convince the lady to “seize the day”. He urges the mistress to have sex with him while they are still young. The narrator notices some birds mating and told his mistress that is how they should mate (Line 38). The narrator tells his mistress that they should use sex to remove all the frustrations that they have. However, the narrator calms down and says that having sex will not make the sun stop moving (Line 45-46). This shows that the movement of the sun creates time and time cannot be stopped. The narrator portrays a confused idea about sex and time in regard to his mistress who did not offer him the sexual desires. Love and sex are some of the themes shown in the poem. Imagery is used to make readers perceive things as if they were real For example Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side (Line 5). This creates an imagination where individuals use their five senses.
In conclusion, the poems show how the speakers convince their ladies to “seize the show” in several ways. In “The Flea”, the narrator uses a flea that was sucking their blood as a way of convincing his lady to have sex with him. In the poem “To Coy His Mistress”, the narrator uses an excuse of death suggesting that his mistress should lose her virginity before death. Both of the poems handle the same basic situation but it is depicted in a different narrative. This shows how Capre diem is incorporated in poems for individuals to utilize the present time rather than the future.
Works Cited
Donne, John. “The Flea” (n.d): 1-27
Marvell, Andrew “To His Coy Mistress” (n.d) 1-46