For this assignment, I have chosen three poems from the Metaphysical movement to examine.

The poems are To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell, and John Donne's The Flea and The Good Morrow. The main theme of To His Coy Mistress is an argument for seizing the moment. The poem, through hyperbole and metaphor, shows how To His Coy Mistress is predominantly about time rather than lust, love or seduction. Marvells poem is written in rhyming couplets and has a tetrameter rhythm. His first proposition begins had we but world enough, and time and tackles the question of having all the time in the world before he and his mistress make love. The second proposition, proceeded by a but, begins now, therefore and suggests that they dont have all the time in the world. The tone of this argument is witty, clever, seductive and impatient, suggesting that the speaker is living for the moment. He suggests, worms shall try his mistresss long preserved virginity, after she takes it to the grave with her. Hyperbole, or exaggeration, is present throughout the poem. It continually plays on the theme of time. Marvells speaker wants everything now before he or his mistress end up in their graves, where he believes noneembrace, despite the privacy available. The poem argues that life should be seized and lived to the fullest. Marvell sees time as a wingd chariot hurrying near suggesting that time is described through hyperbole but also in metaphor. Marvell suggests that his vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires, and more slow. He compares his love to a slow-growing vegetable, which it could be argued, is seasonal and therefore does not take so long to grow. However, the hyperbolic metaphor does identify the scale of his love for the woman; for a vegetable to grow as vast as an empire would no doubt take longer than humans have to live. It becomes difficult to decide if Marvells To His Coy Mistress is a poem about time, love, lust and seduction or perhaps a combination of all four. On the surface, the poem is undeniably about seduction and living for the moment. The speaker argues Now let us sport us while we may, like amorous birds of prey. However, beneath the surface there is evidence to suggest that the speaker has feelings of love for the woman rather than simply lust. Although it

is clear he is attempting to seduce his would-be lover, and at times objectifies her, he tells her he would love you ten years before the flood He is prepared to spend An hundred yearsto praise thine eyes, if time were endless. Therefore, if he could live forever, he would spend his life devoted to her. An example of his respect for the woman can be seen in the lines, you deserve this state, Nor would I love at lower rate which implies that the woman is of higher birth. Despite the speakers respectful compliment, he can also be disturbingly disrespectful. For example, he reminds his mistress that the graves a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace. These lines suggest that she will die a virgin if she does not make love to him; which is somewhat cheeky, perhaps even arrogant. The speaker addresses his mistress directly throughout the poem but her emotions, and responses to his seduction are essentially kept hidden as if it is up to us, as readers, do decide whether he was successful in his wooing. In The Flea, one of John Donne's earler poems, the speaker uses the occasion of a flea hopping from himself to a young lady as an excuse to argue that the two of them should make love. Since in the flea their blood is mixed together, he says that they have already been made as one in the body of the flea. Besides, the flea pricked her and got what it wanted without having to woo her. The fleas bite and mingling of their bloods is not considered a sin, so why should their love-making? The poem is split into three stanzas, each comprised of three couplets and one triplet at the end. He begins the poem by asking the young woman to Mark this flea which has bitten and sucked blood from both himself and her. He points out that she has denied him something which the flea has not refrained from enjoying the intimate union of their bodily fluids (in this case, blood). He argues, cannot be said a sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead. He even points out that the flea is able to enjoy the womans essence before he woo, the implication being that the flea need not court the woman in order to enjoy her sexual favours.

In the second stanza the poet argues for the life of the flea, as the lady has made a move to kill it. He paints the flea as a holy thing: This flea is you and I, and this Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is, suggesting that a spiritual union already exists, although unlike a spiritual marriage in a church, the third being in the trio is not God but a flea. Besides arguing for the fleas life, the speaker is also arguing that he and the lady have already bypassed the usual vows of fidelity and ceremony of marriage; thus, he pushes toward his point that the two of them have already been joined as one in the flea, so there is no harm in joining their bodies in sexual love. He fails in his defense of the flea, for she has purpled her finger with the flea's blood by the opening of the third stanza. It is a sudden but perhaps inevitable betrayal of an innocent being. The woman claims triumph over the lover's argument, responding that neither she nor the man is weaker for her having killed the flea. In this way she attempts to counter the speakers argument that the flea represents a sacred bond between them; the flea is simple to kill and nothing has been lost, and the single drop of blood will not be missed. Thus there is no reason to have sex. The poet, however, turns her argument back against her. If the death of the flea, which had partaken of just a tiny amount of their life-essences, is virtually no problem, despite his pretended fear, then any fear she might have about her loss of honor is equally a false fear. The act of physical union would cause virtually no serious harm to her reputation. That is, as much as she lost to the flea, Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me, Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee. He returns to his original argument from the first stanza: the fleas intimate contact with the woman has caused her no harm, so a physical encounter with the poet will cause no harm either. In his poem, The Good Morrow, Donne fully employs the numerous devices of poetry to relay his speakers endearing message to his lover. He uses elements of structure, figurative language, point-of-view, and tone to creatively support his speaker in the endeavor. The poem is divided into three stanzas, each of which includes seven lines. In addition, each of these stanzas is further divided into a quatrain

and a triplet. In addition, the first stanza uses assonance to reinforce the word we. This is done by a repetition of the long e sound. For example, all of these words are from the first stanza: we, weand, countrey, childlishly, sleepers, fancies, bee, any, beauty, see, desird, dreame, thee. Donne uses assonance for the opposite effect in the last stanza. Instead of focusing on the couple, the speaker focuses on himself by reinforcing the word I. This is done by a repetition of the long i sound. For example, all of these words can be found in the third stanza: I, thine, mine, finde, declining, dyes, alike, die. There is a repetition of the long e sound in the third stanza, but the long i sound is more pronounced. Donne uses figurative language to enhance his poem. First of all, sexual imagery is present in the first stanza. For example, words such as weand and suckd are metaphors for breasts. Another example of metaphor is the word beauty, which represents the woman. In the second stanza, there is an example of hyperbole when the speaker says makes one little roome, an every where. This is an obvious exaggeration and a physical impossibility. There is also use of paradox in the poem. For example, when the speaker says: true plaine hearts doe in the faces rest. Obviously, this phrase is paradoxical as hearts cannot rest in faces. An example of metonomy can be found in the last stanza when the speaker states: My face in thine eye, thine in mine appeares. The speaker does not mean that his face literally appears in his lovers eye, but that she is aware of him. There is an example of symbolism in the poem. This can be found in the titlegood morrow. This not only represents the physical sunrise, but also symbolizes the birth of the awakened individual.