Wooing Women in Poetry

Andrew Marvell was born in the year sixteen-twenty one, in Yorkshire. He became a lecturer in Hull and was educated at Hull Grammar School, and in sixteen-thirty three he matriculated as a Sizar of Trinity College, Cambridge. Marvell wrote many poems, and ‘To His Coy Mistress’ was one of them. The poem was published in the seventeenth century and is a good example of love poetry in this century. Also in the seventeenth century, a poet called John Doone also wrote a similar poem about love.

John Donne’s poem ‘The Flea’ appears to be a love poem, a dedication from a male suitor to his lady of honour, which renounces to yield to his shameless desires. In this poem, the speaker tries to seduce a young woman by comparing the consequences of their lovemaking with those of an insignificant fleabite.

He uses the flea as an argument to demonstrate that the physical relationship he desires is not in itself a significant event, because a similar unification has already taken place within the flea.

The poem was written in the seventeenth century and in those days, if blood was mingled it meant you had had sex with that person.In both poems they use symbols to prove their points to try and get their women to have sex with them. In ‘To His Coy Mistress’ the symbol is time as throughout the poem the man complains about the lack of time in life. In ‘The Flea’ the symbol is quite literally the flea as the man uses this to seduce the women.

Get quality help now

Dr. Karlyna PhD

Verified

Proficient in: Andrew Marvell

4.7 (235)

“ Amazing writer! I am really satisfied with her work. An excellent price as well. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

Both poems are about the speaker trying to seduce and woo the women. Wooed means how the men tried to encourage the women into doing what they wanted. They then try anything to win the women’s hand. These symbols are used very cunningly in the poem for the men’s wooing and they use the devise of language very well when they try and gain the women.

They twist the words to there advantage. She is not worried about what is happening and is determined not to lose her virginity. The man on the other hand has other ideas and wants the woman to get on with what he wants her to do, which is sex. In both poems the poets use the device of symbolism to impress and seduce the women to their advantage. In ‘To His Coy Mistress’ the symbol in this poem is time and all the way through the symbol is reiterated. The man tries to seduce the woman as quick as possible and uses time as a useful seduction technique for him to draw the attention of the woman to him. He tries to make her think that there is not much time left in her life and she should experience sex before she dies.