Comparing Poems

Comparison Poems

Carol Ann Duffy: Hour

In Paris with you

* – newly forming love

James Fenton: In Paris with You and Carol Ann Duffy: Quickdraw

* Quick draw – The pain of love

* In Paris with you – Use of imagery and emotional pain

Mimi Khalvati: Ghazal

To His Coy Mistress

* Poetry by Seduction

* Both poems are about wooing a lover, seeking to convince the other of the merits of a relationship.

* To His Coy Mistress is directly sexual whereas Ghazal is focused on the relationship as a whole.

* Both poems link the idea of love to larger ideas like the passage of time.

* In both poems the speakers propose the idea that without love they are nothing. In To His Coy Mistress the argument centers around the idea of life being wasted without surrendering to passion whereas Ghazal is more concerned with enduring love.

William Shakespeare: Sonnet 116

To His Coy Mistress

* To His Coy Mistress explores the idea of time and its effect on love, although it suggests that death will bring an end unlike Sonnet 116, which suggests that love is greater than death.

Charlotte Mew: The Farmer's Bride and To His Coy mistress

To His Coy Mistress

* As in To His Coy Mistress, the female perspective is considered less important or unfathomable in The Farmer's Bride. The desires of men are given voice at the expense of the woman's point of view.

* Time, specifically the passage of time, is a key theme in both poems. The male narrators are aware of time passing while their desires are unfulfilled. To them time passing is a type of loss. They both want to change their relationships for the better, in their opinion, by cementing them through sexual union.

* Both poems are about males trying to impose their will on a female. In each, the female is resistant to the relationship although the reasons differ, and in each this resistance is challenged by the male speakers.

* To His Coy Mistress is an address to the potential lover and is...