Comparing Shakespeares Sonnet 18 with To his Coy Mistress by Andrew Ma

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 read, the girl (who the poem is to) will continue to exist. Shakespeare therefore does not want anything from the girl in the poem. The purpose and central message of ‘To His Coy Mistress’ is about a man wanting to have sex with a woman he likes and trying to persuade the woman to loose her virginity to him because time is running out. Therefore we recognise that Marvell wants something from the woman in the poem this makes the poem more argumentative. The titles of the two poems, gives an insight of what the poem is about, ‘Shall I Compare Thee†¦?’, this tells the reader that the poem is addressed to someone, this may make the poem more interesting to read and ‘To His Coy Mistress’ meaning ‘To His Girl’, this tells us that Marvell has addressed the poem to a specific girl or woman. Throughout the poem ‘To His Coy Mistress’, Marvell uses time and space to persuade the girl to have sex with him. Marvell also relates death to having sex, he uses words such as ‘Grave’, ‘ashes’, ‘du... ...he poem ‘To his Coy Mistress’ there are Rhyming couplets, but there are few syllable Patterns, for example the first four lines; line one has eight syllables; line two has seven syllables; line three has eight syllables and line four has seven syllables. The sound and Rhythm of the two poems contrast. Sonnet 18 sound and rhythm is slow, calm, and soothing, whilst THCM is speedy, aggressive and frantic. There is repetition used in Sonnet 18 in line two; ‘Thou art more lovely and more temperate’ , the repetition emphasises on how much better a Summer’s day is. I think that Sonnet 18, has many persuasive techniques and tactics to add effect to the purpose of the poem, however I think that the poem ‘To his Coy Mistress’ has more techniques, tactics, themes, Imagery, Symbolism and better Structure, it was therefore easier to achieve it’s purposes.