“To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell and “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning
Power and Desire in a Man’s World
Although these two poems share certain superficial similarities, they are very different in method, tone, subject matter and overall effect. Both poems deal with a relationship between a man and a woman; in both poems the speaker is a man; and in both poems the woman who is addressed in “To His Coy Mistress” and the woman who is spoken about in “My Last Duchess” are not given a voice at all. Indeed, from a feminist perspective the titles of both poems – because they use the possessive adjective “my” - could be said to be obvious products of a patriarchal society. However, that would be to ignore the differences in tone. Marvell’s poem ends on a joyous note of celebration; Browning’s poem ends in a sinister and evil way.
Some of the differences between the two poems are a result of the dates when they were produced. Marvell is writing in the middle of the seventeenth century and lived through the English Civil War. Life was a fragile thing and “To Hos Coy Mistress” is a carpe diem poem. “Carpe diem” is a Latin phrase meaning, “Seize the day!” In a world where medical science was primitive and it was possible to die very suddenly, seizing the day – making the most of one’s opportunities - was vital, and there re many poems from this era that could be classed as “carpe diem” poems. We should remember too that “mistress” in the seventeenth century meant “lover” and had none of its modern connotations of adultery. By contrast, Browning is writing in the Victorian period at the height of the British Empire. Victorian England was fascinated by the culture of Renaissance Italy with its strange mixture of high art and evil political machinations, and Browning’s poem is narrated by the Duke of Ferrara, a real historical figure.
The structure and the ostensible purpose of the poems are different. It is clear from the title whom Marvell is addressing, but in Browning’s poem it is not completely clear until near the very end of the poem that he is talking to a servant of a count whose daughter is about to become his next wife and the new Duchess of Ferrara. Marvell’s poem is a persuasive poem and consists of an argument: the first eighteen lines describe how he would woo his “coy mistress” if they had all the time in the world; the second section uses graphic images to remind her that they will both die – perhaps quite soon; and the final section, starting on line is the conclusion to the argument - let us make love now. By contrast, Browning’s poem is a narrative: he is telling the story of what happened to his former wife, whose portrait forms the starting point of the conversation – except that it is not a conversation, since the emissary from the count does not speak. Browning’s poem is a dramatic monologue in which the Duke of Ferrara gradually reveals what he is like.
Marvell gives the impression that he likes women. In the opening section he uses comic hyperbole, but we get the impression that he would relish having “two hundred years” to “adore each breast”; there is the gloriously funny juxtaposition of the exotic Ganges (which at the time only a handful of Englishmen had seen) and the mundane English river, the Humber; even in the second section, which is full of images of decay (the worms eating their way into his mistress’s body), he carries on the witty tone with a hilarious pun on the word “quaint”; and the final section presents the logical conclusion to his poem in lines that get faster and faster because of Marvell’s use of long sentences and frequent enjambment. Marvell uses the word “now” three times to suggest the urgency and impatience of his desire, and the rhythm speeds up to reflect this desire and to reflect the rhythms of the sex he wants to have with his mistress. It could be argued that Marvell is guilty of treating his mistress as a sex object, but he is at least wholly open and honest about his desires.
In these two very famous poems, separated by two hundred years of history – both speakers are arguably arrogant (is Marvell boasting when he claims that his “vegetable love” will grow “vaster than empires”?), but their intentions are very different: for Marvell mutual pleasure and physical love will bind him and his mistress together; for the Duke of Ferrara his new wife must do exactly what he wants or she will be disposed of.
Works Cited
Browning, Robert. Selected Poems. 2004. London: Penguin. Print.
Marvell, Andrew. The Complete Poems. 2005. London: Penguin. Print.
