Love and Women in Marvell and Keats

Andrew Marvell was writing his piece in post civil war England, and he believed in the revolution and was a great fan of invention and new technology and was renowned for thinking forward, this is consequently reflected in his poetry. John Keats was writing at the time of the industrial revolution, and believed in romance and tradition, so he did not favour the industrialist age. Therefore this is also reflected in his poetry. ‘His Coy Mistress’ by Marvell is about him trying to seduce a shy young lady to have sexual relations with him.

He uses varied sentence structure and a constant rhyming scheme to achieve the effect of romantic flattery in his piece.

‘La Belle Dan Sans Merci’ by Keats again is a romantic piece, and the title give a clue as to what the piece is about as it directly translates to ‘The beautiful lady without mercy’ so this is quite the opposite to Marvell’s poem as in this the Woman of his desire has power, and he believes in chivalry and treating a lady with respect.

Marvell uses a metaphysical combination of strong ideals and complex intellectual ideas to bring across his strong feelings, “Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime.” Here Marvell is conveying that there is not enough time in this life to hide your feelings and to be discreet, so you should use your time how you want to, but if he had enough time he would not mind that she is reluctant as he could spend forever convincing her to love him.

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The title of his piece also gives a clue to the nature of the woman of his desire, as this could give clues to her being timid, shy on the outside.He uses exaggeration to make the situation idyllic, “We would sit down, and think which way, to walk, and pass our long love’s day” here he is making the act of love seem very easy and casual. The start to Keats poem is very different, he uses traditional language asks questions, “O what can ail thee, knight at arms, Alone and palely loitering?” and “O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms! so haggard and so woebegone” the use of an exclamation mark shows his frustration as he has no response. Even though they are suppose to go unanswered.The structure of each poem is different, as Keats has divided his poem into four line stanzas, quatrains, which show that he has patience and that he has pre-planned and shown love, care and attention to what he is doing.

Marvell’s poem is in one stanza which shows that he is eager and is having trouble persuading this lady to be with him. Although Marvell conveys that he is patient he appears to be quite the opposite as he uses a very unusual sentence structure with long drawn out sentences.Whereas Keats uses short sentences consisting of six or seven words, this shows that he is willing to wait and respect the lady and is just putting across many reasons why they should be together. Marvell uses connectives to give an ultimatum to his lady, “I would love you ten years before the flood, and should you, if you please, refuse ….my vegetable love should grow….” Which show that there is no escaping his love for her and if she refuses it will just become stronger.