Comparison Essay

Courting a woman may be one of the most nerve-racking thing a guy will have to do. A majority of guys will have their own way to approach a women that they find works best. In both William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 and Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress”, the speakers have two different methods to flatter their women. Concealed behind both the seemingly insulting comparisons in Shakespeare’s “My Mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”, and the discourteous gestures made in Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress”, are two romantic poems, about a gentleman courting his love. Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582 in Worcester, they were married until his death which was believed to be in 1616 (William Shakespeare). Together they had

The poem is clearly separated into two distinct portions: the first twelve lines, and the ending couplet. These first twelve lines can easily be misinterpreted, through further inspection and added with the ending couplet the reader can see the true meaning. The poem beings with “My Mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” (501), however, like every other line in this poem there is a hidden message. At first glance this appears to be an insult that her eyes don’t remind him of the sun. However, who would want fire red eye? His mistress has eyes that are unique to her, they simply can’t be compared. Every other line in this sonnet has a comparison to one of the Earth’s many beauties. Throughout the sonnet Shakespeare is saying his mistress’ skin isn’t a shiny white, her hair isn’t perfect, her breath doesn’t smell like perfume, and her voice isn’t the most pleasing sound. However, he loves his mistress for who she is. The mistress is not a goddess by any stretch of the imagination. She is who she is and he wouldn’t want it any other way. The final couplet in Shakespeare’s poem truly shows the irony of the previous lines. Line eleven and twelve state, “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare / As any she belied with false compare” (501). Shakespeare is saying that his mistress is as great as any other woman whose features are overly exaggerated in comparison. The

As stated previously the poem is distinctively separated into three separate paragraphs. In the opening paragraph the speaker is describing to his mistress what they could do if she wasn’t acting so coy. The first lines of the poem clearly describes this thought, “Had we but world enough, and time, / This coyness, Lady, were no crime” (522). The speaker then goes on to state some of the things they could do together, such as going to the Ganges River to find rubies. In lines 13-17 the speaker describes how he would give her individual body parts compliments, and how he would be thorough in doing so. The second paragraph is describing the need to expedite their love. In line twenty one to twenty two, “But at my back I always hear / Time’s winged chariot hurrying near” (522), the speaker is explaining they are wasting time as their time is running out. As Bruce King put it, “If man lived in an eternal world there would be time for courtly graces and virtuous attitudes, but since life is short, one should enjoy it as fully as one can while there is still time”. He goes on to what appears to be a scare tactic in having her think of her apparently impending death in lines twenty three through 32. Ending this paragraph with “The grave’s a fine and private place, / But none, I think, do there embrace”