Comparing Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 with To his Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell I will be comparing two poems, ‘Shall I Compare Thee…?’ with ‘To His Coy Mistress’, I will examine the purposes of each poem and the techniques used by the two poets to convey ideas and to achieve purposes. Sonnet 18 was written by William’s Shakespeare between 1564 and 1616.
The poem ‘To his Coy Mistress’ was written by Andrew Marvell. The Purposes of the two poems are different, the purpose of Sonnet 18 is for Shakespeare to write this poem for a girl or woman he likes, to praise her by comparing her to wonderful things in life, such a Summer, also to grant her immortality through lines of the poem; meaning as long as the poem will exist and be …show more content…
Marvell does this to put her under pressure to have sex with him; this is a fear tactic and a persuasive technique. He also associates the passing of time with her beauty fading, to make her more self conscious and see that she should have sex with him beauty fades and she becomes ugly, then nobody will have sex with her. He uses fear tactics throughout the poem to persuade her to have sex with him; this affects the mood of the poem making it more threatening and tenser.
For example: ‘To talk and pass our long love’s day’ In line 11, Marvell talks about sex using phallic imagery when saying ‘vegetable love’, this makes it humorous which will affect the mood making it less tense and relaxing. Marvell uses many different tactics, such as exaggeration, by comparing her to the Indian Ganges; ‘Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side’ This affects the mood of the poem making it flattery, imagery such as this will flatter the girl and persuade her to have sex with him, and this establishes that this technique is persuasive. Marvell is Romantic in the poem in line 19; ‘For, lady, you deserve this state’ This makes this part of the poem calm and sensitive, which contrasts to the following verses of the poem as they are threatening and.
