Preview

Ap English Poetry Comparative Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
675 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Ap English Poetry Comparative Essay
This a comparative analysis of poems 'To His Coy Mistress', 'Let's Misbehave' (actually is a song) and 'The Sunne Rising'. It was supposed to be 4 poems, but I'm pretty sure a paragraph went missing, so this is up for repairs.

English Comparative Essay.

The collection of texts presented in this essay depicts an underlying theme of love. The texts have been examined and explored in order to note the similarities or differences in various categories. To compare two texts by the length of their stanza would be to diminish the value of its words; indeed a comparison of texts must come from the connotation.

The subject of love is most definitely the most important and prominent theme in the four texts creating a likely similarity however,
…show more content…
Yet I feel that I shall stand... by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and The Sunne Rising by John Donne also convey a strong message of love. Conversely, they do not resemble the first two texts without the protruding theme of lust. They instead present a new idea about life and death. The poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning starts by describing a woman's love for a man who is leaving her. However, when reading the last two lines "…God for myself, He hears that name of thine, and sees within my eyes the tears of two." it is observed that the lady is asking for God to take her rather than the gentleman. It is also interpreted that while the lady asks for God to take her instead of the man she loves, she is already dead; she cries one tear for him and one for herself.

The Sunne Rising by John Donne, another poem, possesses statements that suggest another type of love, the love of a man for his world. The poem starts of quite light-hearted, "Busy old fool, unruly sun…through windows, and through curtains, call on us..." He is talking about the sun, Mother Earth. This is revealed in the line "…She's all states and all princes I…" But again, in the last few lines of the poem the words resemble death. The death of light over the earth as the sun

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    ‘Lore’ and ‘An old man’s winter night’ both use enjambment, but to different effects. They also use parenthesis in their poems. However in ‘Lore’ the rhyme scheme emphasises Jobs rhythm of work. He also has a jump in his step while he is telling us about his life and…

    • 1375 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Most people expect that all poetry should be close to the same thing if we were to have the same theme, but in fact, although there are many similarities, there can also be many differences too. Upon comparison of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S Eliot and Afternoons and Coffee Spoons by Crash Test Dummies we see just this. These two poems share similarities in theme, and reference to time but do not have similar tones.…

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Comparison Poetry Essay

    • 2387 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Each one of the poems offers a unique view upon love. The first poem by Robert Herrick, "To the Virgins to make much of Time," focuses upon the idea of carpe diem. The poem stresses the idea of marriage while love and flesh are still young and believes this gift of virginity to be a great waste if not given while it is still desirable. Marvell also uses the carpe diem theme to his poem ‘To His Coy Mistress,’ however with three certain sections within the poem. The first part elaborates on the idea of unlimited time; this then evolves a ‘but’ into the poem that everything must come to end and death catches up upon us. Then in the last third of the poem the word ‘therefore’ comes into play as the poet says that we should enjoy the time we now have with one another. The last poem by William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18, is much different as it takes a very different approach to the youth of marriage, he uses descriptions of nature, and the power and images that they imply, and directly compares them to the power the young man possesses in his youth. Although all poems are very similar, each has its own unique way to voice its opinion. The two that are more similar to each other would be Marvell and Herrick’s poem as they both use the carpe diem theme, although to different levels.…

    • 2387 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the Victorian Era people were still very religious and EBB was no different and is reflected in her poetry. She implies that love, if it more than merely attraction and desire, must have a spiritual element. It also further reflects the value of Victorian ideology in its religious affirmations and patriarchal attribution of masculine power. This is especially shown In Sonnet 43 when she writes “as men strive for Right.. as they turn from Praise.” She also writes how their love will continue after their deaths into the afterlife, “I shall but love thee better after death.” This suggests her deep passion for her love, and how it will carry on. Even in Sonnet 32 where she is very doubtful, the sonnet still shows spiritual, soul-bonding power of ideal love as the poem ends with the musical and spiritual analogy that, together, they create ‘perfect strains’ and their ‘great souls, at one stroke, may do and coat.’…

    • 936 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Change In Edson's Poems

    • 2452 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Donne’s poems are interesting in the way they often present an ongoing thought process, rather than a story with a distinct beginning and end. Donne being from the literary culture; many of his poems reflect this mid-way change of heart, as he is comfortable dealing in ongoing reflection and experience, rather than static facts. One of Donne’s love poems, ‘The Sunne Rising’ centres around Donne, in bed with his lover, annoyed at the sun for disturbing their slumber. “Busie old foole, unruly Sunne” he writes. Donne, in personifying the sun, and describing such a thing in paradox (“unruly sun”), supports the idea that literary culture places more emphasis on emotion and description than logical fact. The structure of ideas throughout the poem thereafter is fluid. Donne is initially annoyed at the sun for its punctuality, saying that a love like his knows no time, and the sun would be better off chastising late schoolboys. As the poem progresses, Donne goes from annoyance, to mocking the sun's supposed power (“Thy beames, so reverend… I could eclipse then with a winke”), to then feeling content, and almost bad for the sun. Donne writes “Thou sunne are halfe as happy’as wee, in that the world’s contracted thus”, in which he is stating that the poor, old sun must have an easier job shining down on him and his lover, as their entire world is confined to each other. It is this notion of fluidity of ideas that further reflects the literary culture of Donne’s poems. He uses his writings, not to record tangible fact and feeling, but to support the idea that both his thoughts, and the subjects of his writing, can easily be written flexibly, as they are both…

    • 2452 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Donne’s sonnet entitled “Divine Sonnet X” looks closely at death and Donne fervently writes about his views on death and his strong belief that death should not be feared, but embraced. Donne personifies death all throughout his poem as he challenges death by stating that death is not the “mighty and dreadful” part of life that most people fear, but rather an escape from life where people can be at peace like they are when they are sleeping. Donne is literally conversing with death, and pleading his case that death is weak and will never claim victory over men. “Divine Sonnet X” is comprised of poetic devices and vocabulary that not only enhance the power of the message that Donne is trying to convey, but also greatly signifies his theme. Donne’s use of metaphors is commonplace in his sonnet which clearly outlines his purpose. The most prominent device used in this sonnet is Donne’s use of personification. Personification is crucial to his sonnet as it pulls the reader in and aids them in believing in his pursuit to prove that death is not powerful. Used when describing death, personification encapsulates the poem’s intended purpose. The poem uses this poetic device along with Donne’s influential views to convey that death is not strong; it is weak, nor is it worthy of fear or awe.…

    • 1013 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Comparing two poems

    • 1326 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Limbo and Caged Bird are two very similar poems. They are mainly about one matter-freedom of captivity. Freedom is what the poems characters desire and hope to have. Freedom is their need and wants to be joyful and happy. I have picked these two poems, which link in many different ways, because they have interesting descriptions of the scene and tell us what the atmosphere is like. Furthermore, the authors, Braithwaite and Maya Angelou have used different techniques to portray feelings and show the events occurring.…

    • 1326 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    This is one of Donne’s love poems; however, it creates an emotion of profound sadness as Donne’s melancholic nature of the poem - ‘The whole world’s sap is sunk’ (line 5) - remain constant throughout. The regular stanza form and line length portray the constant emotion throughout the poem. The subject of losing a loved one in a love poem is typical of Donne and his hyperbole portrays the extent of his sadness as he implies that her death is his death ‘For I am every dead thing’ (line 12). Donne’s use of hyperbole in the poem is also one of his key rhetorical devices as it represents Renaissance poetry and transgression of society.…

    • 514 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The notion of love is presented as both a sensory experience of the body and a religious understanding of the soul, a distinction represented through the Aristotelian delineation between the worldly imperfection of the sublunary and the binary opposite perfection of the transcendental, that marks the inherent conflict between the physical and the spiritual. Indeed, the force of physical love and sexual desire, for Donne, is innately subordinate to divine love, or spiritual beauty. A Valediction Forbidding Mourning, along with The Sun Rising, identifies this binary opposition between the banal, sublunary love of existence and the sacred love of the speakers. However, contrary to this reverence, the speaker in To His Mistress Going to Bed, claims that his love for a woman, as she undresses, surpasses all Biblical…

    • 1139 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Whether it’s the poem “a special world” written in the 21th century, or the poem “Annabel Lee” written in the 19th century, they both centered on the topic of love. However, authors’ distinct usage of words made these two poems so different in the attitude toward love. While “a special world” triumphs the joyousness of love, the “Annabel Lee” mourns over the heartbreaking fairy tale.…

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The poem tenderly comforts the speaker's lover at their temporary parting, asking that they separate calmly and quietly, without tears or protests. The speaker justifies the desirability of such calmness by developing the ways in which the two share a holy love, both sexual and spiritual in nature. Donne's celebration of earthly love in this way has often been referred to as the "religion of love," a key feature of many other famous Donne poems, such as "The Canonization" and The Ecstasy. Donne treats their love as sacred, elevated above that of ordinary earthly lovers. He argues that because of the confidence their love gives them, they are strong enough to endure a temporary separation. In fact, he discovers ways of suggesting, through metaphysical conceit, that the two of them either possess a single soul and so can never really be divided, or have twin souls permanently connected to each other. A metaphysical conceit is an extended metaphor or simile in which the poet draws an ingenious comparison between two very unlike objects. "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" ends with one of Donne's most famous metaphysical conceits, in which he argues for the lovers' closeness by comparing their two souls to the feet of a drawing compass—a simile that would not typically occur to a poet writing about his lov…

    • 1680 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Browning Essay

    • 1250 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Robert Browning’s poetry still remains today as significant works of literature that are worthy of critical study. What make Browning’s poetry worthy of critical study are the engaging and didactic themes that are explored through Victorian concerns and context and are presented through the minds of characters.…

    • 1250 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pied Beauty

    • 1051 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Good-Morrow" is written from the point of view of an awaking lover and describes the lover's thoughts as he wakes next to his partner. The lover's musings move from discussing sensual love to spiritual love as he realises that, with spiritual love, the couple are liberated from fear and the need to seek adventure. The poem makes use of biblical and Catholic writings, indirectly referencing the legend of the Seven Sleepers and Paul the Apostle's description of divine, agapic love - two concepts with which, as a practising Catholic, Donne would have been familiar.…

    • 1051 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Donne

    • 849 Words
    • 4 Pages

    ‘The Sun Rising’ is a love poem about a frustrated lover, woken by the sun. It opens with a mocking tone towards the Sun. The tone throughout is one of aggravation and, I think a touch of egotism is evident. Donne seems to ignore love poetry’s conventional method of rhyming beautifully and gracefully and instead shocks the reader with unexpected turns of phrase and conceit such as ‘Saucy, pedantic wretch, go chide’ and ‘Thou sun art half as happy as we’.…

    • 849 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays