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  • Essay / The Essence of Love in the Poems of Marvell and Shelley

    Love is an idea that many are familiar with - a term used to characterize a person's deep affection for someone. Love is unique in the way it manifests and presents itself. Sometimes love is described as true devotion to another, while other times it is simply described as lustful desire. In some cases, love can be so intense that it turns into pure madness to possess your lover. Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" and Percy Shelley's "Love's Philosophy" directly contrast in the way they depict love. “Love's Philosophy” presents love as honest and divine as “To His Coy Mistress” presents love as a lustful feeling. In addition to these two poems, Robert Browning dwells on the subject of madness in his dramatic monologue, "Porphyria's Lover", presenting madness as the result of love as well as the result of the need for control and possession of 'a man. These poems all describe radically different views on the nature of love. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay “To His Shy Mistress” depicts the lustful aspects of “love”. Although this poem is a love poem, the poem culminates in a huge ultimatum, which is: sleep with me because we're running out of time. The first stanza of the poem is where the speaker makes his first point. He opens the poem by saying, “If they had enough people and time… [they] would sit down, consider which way to go, and spend [their] long day of love” (Marvell 1-4); meaning if he had enough time, he would be patient in loving her. He goes on to use flattery to tell his lover that he would "love at [no] lower rate" because she deserves nothing but first-class love. Then he introduces the statement “but”. Although he would like to love her slowly and patiently, he claims that he can "hear / Time's winged chariot rushing" and so he must rush her. He then considers the following reason why they must speed up the pace of their love: her beauty will eventually fade. He states that “her beauty will no longer be found” and that “the worms will tempt / This long-preserved virginity”. As grotesque as it sounds, he is essentially trying to provoke a sense of urgency in his lover and scare her by telling her that she will die a virgin. Ultimately, he states that they are fundamentally trapped in the prison of life and the only way to escape is to "tear [their] pleasures apart in bitter strife / Through the iron gates of life ". This entire poem, as symbolic and insightful as it may seem, culminates with the simple fact that her love for her lover manifests itself in the most lustful – and almost vain – way that a love poem could ever have. Coy Mistress,” “Love’s Philosophy” presents love as genuine and sincere as the poet Shelley uses personification throughout most of the poem. This use of personification allows the many descriptions of the greatness of his love to seem even more grandiose. Shelley divides the poem into two stanzas; each ending with a question. In the first stanza, he states that “the fountains mingle with the river… [and that] the winds of Heaven mingle forever” (Shelley 1-3). Along with this description, Shelley argues that nothing in the world is unique and he ends the short stanza by asking that if everything in this world matches, "Why not me with yours?" (Shelley 8). The second stanza follows the same pattern, again presenting ".