Donne and Marvell's contribution to love poetry

John Donne and Andrew Marvell were both great metaphysical poets. Their contribution to love poetry in English literature is outstanding.

"To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell is often linked with John Donne’s "The Flea": they are both witty poems of seduction which display their authors’ passion and erudition in equal measure. But they are also very different works, and employ distinct rhetorical and poetic techniques.

Whereas "The Flea" depends upon the central “conceit” of the insect, which is then applied to the situation, Marvell’s poem employs an urbane and direct appeal, beginning “Had we but world enough, and time/ This coyness, lady, were no crime.” He is drawing on the classic topos known as carpe diem, or “seize the day”, closely to related to the memento mori, the reminder that we shall all die (“But at my back, I always hear/ Time’s winged chariot hurrying near.”) Though the memento mori is often employed in a serious context in order to provoke grave thoughts, such as the anamorphic picture of a skull which cuts across Holbein’s famous portrait known as “The Ambassadors”, Marvell uses it here to encourage his mistress to enjoy his love whilst they are still both young and alive.

There are obvious differences in the poem’s techniques as well: whilst "The Flea" employs an irregular, ingenious rhyme scheme, "To His Coy Mistress" uses elegant couplets, emphasizing Marvell’s poise and balance over the jagged enthusiasm of Donne’s lines. There are touches of self-mocking humour as well, linking his mistress with the exotic Ganges River in India, whilst he consigns himself to “complain” “by the tide of Humber”, a more prosaic river in the North of England. Likewise he describes his “vegetable love” which, if they had all eternity would “grow/ Vaster than empires and more slow.” There is a definite touch of self-deprecation in this image of the poet’s all-consuming passion spreading over like a prize marrow.

In making his conclusion, Marvell doesn’t depend on the same kind of logical “trap” which snaps shut at the end of the "The Flea". Rather than deploying a cunning twist of logic, Marvell depends on his heightened and poetic language, sweeping the listener along with references to the couple’s chances “Now...while thy willing soul transpires/ At every pore with instant fires” to “Tear our pleasures with rough strife/ Through the iron gates of life.” "The Flea" might amuse or impress its listener with ingenuity and wit, but "To His Coy Mistress" depends on its ability to inspire and stir with such heightened language.