Essay on Compare The Presentation Of Love In My Coy Mistress

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Compare the presentation of Love in ‘My Coy Mistress’, ‘Sonnets are full of love’ and ‘Stop all the clocks and cut off the telephone’.

The therapeutic art that is poetry allows writers to express love for their subject whilst creating a permanent testimony to them. These three poems are no different; ‘My Coy Mistress’ metaphysical depiction of an unattainable woman explores the premise of having unlimited time, exploring themes of lust, nature and religion. ‘Stop all the clocks’ reviews the effect death on love and expresses an anger as the world moves on. ‘Sonnets of Love’ shows a familial love as the narrator mourns the death of his mother.

All three poems assess the effect of time their relationships and love. ‘My Coy Mistress’ uses biblical diction in order to explore the scale of his love for this unattainable female, and to highlight that time would have no effect on his definiteness of his feelings; ‘I would love you ten years before the flood… Till the conversion of the Jews…Love should grow Vaster then Empires.’ A devoted, grand atmosphere developed though phrase ‘till the conversion of the jews’ demonstrates a relentless, immoveable love that time cannot undo. The religious diction ‘flood’ and ‘jews’ is symbolic of the divine nature of his love, portraying him as a saviour, saving her from ‘the flood’. ‘Sonnets are full of Love’ also explores the effect of time; ‘of love, whose blessed glow transcends the the laws of time… and mortal life of death.’ A contrastingly reflective, sombre mood forged though the the words ‘laws of time’ and echoed though out the poem, forces two distinct responses from the reader, deepening of their own background: Firstly to sympathise with the readers pain and secondly to reflect on times they have lost loved ones. A respectful, sombre tone created by the phase ‘blessed glow of transcends the laws of time’ demonstrates feelings of endearment and admiration as ‘blessed’ and ‘glow’ have warm, loving connotations. ‘Stop all the Clocks’ expresses an anger at time as the narrator equates this to moving on when he doesn’t want to; ‘Stop all the clocks… silence the pianos…let the mourner come.’ A similarly mournful, sad mood however significantly more frustrated tone is present here as there is a sense of reluctance to accept loss of a love one. These feeling are echoed though the slow flow of the poem as if it is being spoken walling to a funeral. ‘stop all the clocks’ has a blunt, crippled atmosphere highlighting a resentment of time’s constant need to continue. All three poems present time however do so in polar opposite ways. ‘My Coy Mistress’ uses time as an extended metaphor symbolic of his seemingly divine love. ‘Sonnets are full of Love’ uses time as a testament to his Mum, a parental love. Similarly ‘stop all the clocks’ uses time to express grief at the loss of a person close to the narrator, a familial love. All three poets are successful in these aims as all three are highly emotive to the reader. ‘Stop all the clocks’ and ‘Sonnets are full of love’ both force readers to reflect, allowing detailed personal connections to them as the meanings are not subjective and they express realistic portrayals of human emotion in light of loss of love: ‘Stop all the Clocks’ presents frustration and concept at the loss of a loved one whilst Sonnets full of love: presents an admiration for them. In contrast, ‘My Coy Mistress’ shows a confident, bold character as there is a different in aim. The aim here is to persuade a woman that he is right for her, though flamboyant, bold comparisons of his love to different time scales.

All three poems explore what love will do/has done to them as a person. They suggest that love has made them better people. In ‘stop all the clocks’, the narrator suggest that love gave them direction; ‘He was my North, my South, my East and West, my working week and my Sunday rest,’ The North, South, East, West comparison is symbolic of how he is lost due to grief
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