Final essay Essay Example

Final essay Essay Example Final essay Essay Final essay Essay Although the poems both illustrate the battle against ones impending doom and have certain similarities in their portrayal of mortality, they also display the two different attitudes towards it. First of all, the two poems take the same approach of personifying mortality as a sentient, malevolent being. In Marvels poem, time is described as chasing the couple in a Winged chariot (22) and may devour them with his slow-chapped power (40). The first metaphor is an allusion to the god of the sun, Apollo, emphasizing the speed and inevitability of time as the sun rises ND sets regularly every day. The second metaphor alludes to Crocus, father of Zeus, who ate his children for fear of being overthrown by them. In the speakers eyes, death is an oppressive and brutal enemy. Likewise, Shakespeare describes death as a grim and arrogant being: Nor shall death brag thou wand rest in his shade (11). It is possible that through the personification of death, the writers attempt to make something as abstract as death and mortality more palpable and comprehensible by giving it human qualities. In reality, all lives go through death, a natural occurrence that has o such evil qualities and is not subject to reason. It is perhaps the mysterious nature of death that strikes the most terror into peoples heart. However, through antagonizing death, the speakers fear and resentment of the unknown can be justified. From the use of personification in the two poems, we can catch a glimpse of how the speakers feel about the inevitable mortality. Though the speakers in the two poems possess similar emotions towards death, they however seem to look at the prospect of death quite differently. To His Coy Mistress is filled with horrifying images of the afterlife, such as deserts of vast eternity (24), worms (27), dust (29) and ashes (30). The speaker in the poem sees nothing but barrenness and suffering in death. The last verse gives further insight into how he views death: Rather at once our time devour/ than languish in his slow-chapped power (39-40), and thorough the iron gates of life (44). He resents mortality, and only finds it imprisoning. He has no faith in the future, but does not attempt to escape from mortality because he knows that death is inescapable. : Shakespeare, on the other hand, does not seem to have such a simplistic point of view towards mortality. When declaring that his lovers beauty surpasses the summer days because summers lease hath all too short a date (4), the tone is calm and the word choice is not as negative as the second verse of Marvels poem. In addition, when Shakespeare talks about how everything beautiful declines, he says And every fair from fair sometime declines, / by chance, or natures changing course, untrimmed (7-8). Again, the tone is rather calm, and he acknowledges that mortality is destined by nature. This realization can again be seen in the line Nor lose session of that fair thou stows (10). An interesting ambiguity lies in the word stows, because it can be interpreted as newest or sweet. If the word means owes?, then Shakespeare is acknowledging that the lovers beauty is borrowed from nature and has to be returned. Therefore, although the two speakers in the two poems both admit that mortality is unavoidable, Shakespeare appears more accepting and neutral of the idea whereas the other resents it. Moreover, the speakers in the two poems choose to rebel against mortality in completely different ways. The young man in wry His Coy Mistress takes a more fierce and impulsive approach. He encourages his lover that they should love each other like amorous birds of prey (38), and though they cannot stop time, they will make him run (46). Birds of prey, also known as raptors, are birds that hunt and feed on other animals. The word raptor originates from Latin word rapper, meaning to seize or take by force (Brown). This simile shows that the speaker desperately wants to overpower mortality, to pursue but not to be pursued. By being like amorous birds of prey, the speaker chooses to unleash his passion and annalistic instincts. When death eventually arrives, the couple will have no regrets, for they embrace the short-lividness of life and make the most of it. Instead of enjoying ones youth and bodily pleasures to the fullest like the speaker in Marvels poem, Shakespeare chooses to resist mortality in a more immaterial way. Unlike the speaker in To His Coy Mistress, who seems to focus on savoring his lovers beauty as it is now, Shakespeare takes it a step further and focuses on preserving his lovers beauty for all eternity. He writes, When in eternal lines to Time thou grows/ So long as men can breathe, or eyes can e/ So long lives this, and this gives life to thee (12-14), where he announces that the poem itself shall live on, thus granting the lover immortality. This determination is the most significant difference between the two speakers approaches. When facing the threat of mortality, one defies it with his power as a human, another defies it with the power of literature. One yearns to live his life to the fullest through the indulgence of physical pleasures, another seeks for eternal existence beyond physicality through the creation of art. This, perhaps, gives us insight into how Shakespeare views literature and its rower: even though literature is a human product, it will outlive its creators because it is not confined by human mortality. Generations of people will be able to read the poem, and his lover will live on in these peoples mind. Interestingly, To His Coy Mistress seems to hold different opinions about the immortality of poetry, though it is open to personal interpretation. One can argue that To His Coy Mistress has onomatopoetic implications about the mortality and limitations of poetry. For example, the first verse is about the speakers idealistic fantasy of having an eternity to praise his lovers beauty. He says he by the tide/ Of Hummer would complain (6-7), where complain means writing a love complaint. Love complaints in literature are a formerly popular variety of poem that laments or protests unrequited love (Complaints). He would be willing to write poems about their love if only he had the time. Also, he describes how he would extol the beauty of his lover: An hundred years should go to praise/ Thin eyes and on thy forehead gaze; and the last age should show your heart (13-18). The praise of individual female body parts and exaggeration of time resembles blazon, which is a attic mode wherein the speaker uses metaphor, simile and hyperbole to describe the parts of his or her lovers body (Literary Terms). However, all these statements which seem to point to poetry are deemed unrealistic and absurd by the speaker, because no one will have that much time. It can be interpreted that the speaker does not believe in the immortality of poetry. In the second verse of the poem, where the speaker explains the harsh truth of mortality, he says Thy beauty shall no more be found, nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound/ my echoing song (25-27). My echoing song may be pointing to the love complaint he mentions earlier. Contrary to Shakespearean view, the speaker points out that poetry may not actually be immortal. Poem exists for people to read them. If the subject of the love poem is dead, then the poem can only echo uselessly in the coffin, devoid of meaning. In the second verse, Marvel writes, Thy beauty shall no more be found, And your quaint honor turn to dust, land into ashes all my lust (25-30). Even though the poem still echoes through the air, the subjects beauty and the writer desire that inspired it is long gone. Poetry can be passed on for generations and inspire future people indeed. But it is impossible to make the people involved in it, who are destined by nature to be mortal, immortal. In this sense, poetry is just as mortal as human beings and it too has its limitations. To conclude, the two poems To His Coy Mistress and Shall I Compare Thee to a Summers Day are not only about love, but also about the painful and complicated conflict between humans and mortality. They showcase how humans may feel about their inevitable fate, and the different ways that humans may defy it as well.