Topic > The Essence of Love in the Poems of Marvell and Shelley

Love is an idea that many are familiar with: a term used to characterize deep affection for someone. Love is unique in the ways it manifests and presents itself. Sometimes love is described as genuine devotion towards another, while other times it is described as simply lustful. In some cases, love can be so intense that it turns into pure madness in possessing one's beloved. “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell and “Love’s Philosophy” by Percy Shelley are in direct contrast in how they describe love. “Love's Philosophy” presents honest and divine love just as “To His Coy Mistress” presents love as a lustful feeling. In addition to these two poems, Robert Browning focuses on the theme of madness in his dramatic monologue, “Porphyria's Lover,” presenting madness as the result of love as well as the result of man's need to control and possess. All of these poems describe radically different views on the nature of love. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay “To His Demure Mistress” portrays the lustful aspects of “love.” Although this poem is a love poem, it culminates in a huge ultimatum, which is: sleep with me because we are running out of time. The first stanza of the poem is when the speaker makes his first point. He opens the poem by saying, “If [they] had had enough world and time… [they] would have sat and thought which way to walk and spent [their] long day of love” (Marvell 1-4 ); which means if he had enough time, he would be patient in loving her. She goes on to use flattery to tell her lover how she would "love at [no] lower price" because she deserves nothing but first-class love. He then introduces the “but” statement. Although he would like to love her at a slow, patient pace, he states that he can "feel / Time's winged chariot fast approaching" and therefore must hurry her. Then he considers the next reason why they must quicken the pace of their love: because her beauty will fade sooner or later. He states that her "beauty shall be found no more" and that "worms shall try / That virginity long preserved." As grotesque as it sounds, he is basically attempting to provoke a sense of urgency in his mistress and scare her by saying that he will die a virgin. Ultimately, he states that they are fundamentally trapped in the prison of life and that the only way to escape is to "wrest [their] pleasures with harsh conflict / Through life's iron gates." The entire poem, as symbolic and insightful as it may seem, culminates in the simple fact that his love for his lover manifests itself in the most lustful and almost vain way that a love poem could ever have. Coy Mistress,” “Love’s Philosophy” presents genuine and sincere love as the poet, Shelley, uses personification throughout much of the poem. This use of personification makes the many descriptions of the grandeur of his love seem even grander. Shelley divides the poem into two stanzas; each ends with a question. In the first stanza he states that “the fountains mingle with the river… [and that] the winds of heaven mingle forever” (Shelley 1-3). Along with this description, Shelley argues that nothing in the world is unique and concludes the short stanza by asking that if everything in this world has a correspondence, "Why not me with yours?" (Shelley 8). The second stanza follows the same pattern, presenting love, once again, as grand and divine as "the mountains kiss the high of Heaven / And the waves embrace each other" (Shelley 9-10). But as he concludes by describing the wonderful essence of nature,.