Essay :
Contrasting Treatment of Time
The two poems, “Piano” by D.H.Lawrence and “To my Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell may appear to depict the flow of time, but while the first one turns the spotlight on the power of the past, the second one stresses on the importance of the present. It is also remarkable how each of the two poets uses language in his own style to produce a very distinct effect, making the poems dissimilar in many ways.
Both the poets have drawn vivid portraits with words. A song takes Lawrence back to his past, and makes him draw a cosy picture of a child at the knee of a mother playing a piano. Marvell, however, brings several landscapes in front of the mind’s eye such as the banks of the River Ganges, vast empires and large deserts.
Both the poets have picked the simple rhyme scheme aa, bb, cc, dd, ee and so on, but these rhymings words produce completely contrasting results. This rhyme scheme matches Lawrence’s poem reminding us of children’s rhymes, and goes well with the theme of a childhood memory. At the same time, it suits Marvell’s light hearted approach, as a lover who has set out to woo his lady. The trochaic pentameter is used in “Piano” , and the first syllables are stressed while in the iamebic tetrameter of “To his Coy Mistres” , the second syllables are stressed. Both these meters help the words flow smoothly from line to line, as in a song.
But Lawrence intention is to arouse sympathy, and he talks of a singular moment in his personal history. In sharp contrast, Marvell talks of several points in history such as the Floods and the conversion of Jews in a casual tone. He also desribes a future point in time when the lovers would be in their graves, mocking his lady for wasting time.
Although nostalgia considered to be a negative emotion, and Lawrence tries to evoke a longing for the dead past, he invokes a great deal of beauty and feelings of warmth in the picture his memory paints. The home is cosy in winter and his mother smiles as she plays a tune which booms above the head of the child, who presses his mother’s feet, perhaps playfully, or perhaps admiringly or lovingly. His tone is sentimental and wistful , but he manages to make everyone wish they too could feel that kind of maternal love.
Marvell’s wooing too rises beyond a call for physical intimacy. He is talking about how transcient life can be, and doing that in a very humorous tone.While Lawrence seems helpless and held in thrall by a moment in time, Marvell plans to make time stand still. While one poet seems to be depressed and crying, and caught in a time capsule , the other is high spirited and challenges that he and his lady could make the sun run.
The poets have used a variety of literary devises to make their poems affect the readers in a particular way. In the first line of his poem Lawrence uses the words, ‘softly’ , ‘dusk’ and ‘singing’to produce a musical effect through sibilance. The phrase, ‘betrays me back’ is alliterative and has the same effect. By personifying his heart in the phrase, ‘makes the heart of me weep’, he indicates that he is in two states at the same time: firstly in the present where he is helpless and teary eyed, but more importantly in the past, when his life was glowing under his mother’s love and care. The rhyming words clamour and glamour show how contrasting his experience was in the two worlds. The piano is also personified as a guide, whereby the poet emphases the ability of music to transport humans beyond their condition of suffering. As the memory washes over him, he compares it to a flood using a metaphor. In the end he uses a simile to compare his behavior of cry ting to that of a child. This simile brings out how nostalgia can change a grown man’s behaviour. He concludes strongly that the present , wherein a singer was singing passionately, had less effect on him than his nostalgic memory of music and his mother, which overpowered him completely.
Marvel adopts a chatty style, pausing in the middle of the second line, with the word ‘Lady’ and takes liberties with the metre. He draws attention to the vegetating state of their human desires, by creating sibilance through the words, vast, vegetable and love in the same line. Instead , he suggests through the use of a simile, that they should be like amorous birds of prey and be swift, alive and ardent. The alliterative phrase in the last line, where he says that their union would be absorbing enough to make the ‘sun stand still’. Marvell asserts that capturing the moment is possible through love. His fine sense of humour and irony are brought in a metaphor that he uses to describe the grave. He calls it a fine private place; But then how could the dead express their love? This is a strong argument he makes, entreating people not to waste time until it was too late.
So I conclude that while Lawrence walks towards the past and shows its victory of the present, Marvell uses every possible argument and literary devise to show that through we have to live in the moment and make it ours. Thu s their attitude towards time is distinct and different and is best brought our by their treatment of the same.
Sources:
- Kennedy, X.J, and Gioa,Dana . “Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing” seventh edition, Longman, NewYork, 2002.
