In comparison to my second poem, ‘To his Coy Mistress’ [1650] by Andrew Marvel, the main theme is the opposite of love, where a man is lusting for is ‘coy mistress’, and presents an argument for why she should let him have her, opposed to traditional values which were held in that era. It describes how one woman’s chastity Is so Important to her, that she wont give In to his seduction techniques. Queen Kong ;s set In New York and uses places of fraternally such as the Brooklyn Bridge, Bloodiness’s and things associated with New York such as yellow taxi cabs.
Duffy starts the poem off with ‘l’, in the first hand describing the gorillas time in New York in the first stanza. In comparison to ‘His Coy Mistress’, the first line of the poem ‘Had we but world enough and time.. ‘, starts off presenting a logical argument of what the man in the poem could offer. However, the first word ‘Had’, could be changed for ‘If’, as this seems more appropriate due to the fact that if his love is a true love, why must there be arguments or logical reasoning?
The second stanza of Duff’s poem moves away from the location of Manhattan, and focuses on how the female gorilla and the ;little man’ first met; at the island where the ‘little an’ is directing a prize-winning film in which the gorilla stars. ‘Scooped him up in my palm, And held his wriggling, shouting life till he calmed’, shows a cliche referring to the common line ‘holding him In the palm of my hand’, where a woman Is described as controlling her man. Although, In this line It Is used In a different way to show her love for the ‘little man’, even though love is usually shown through hugs and kisses.
As Queen King is thoroughly descriptive of her ‘little man’, describing IM as nervous, perfectly formed and gorgeous, His coy mistress Is egocentric, as the woman who the poem Is about Is deemed as Insignificant as there Is no description of her whatsoever. This highlights the main difference of love in both poems as the love described in Queen Kong seems sincere as the Gorilla has taken time to describe and talk about her ‘little man’, but In HIS Coy Mistress the readers have no Idea who the Mistress Is, The man describes his love for his mistress as immeasurable, one that started ten years before the flood’, referring to the Old
Testament when Noah took the animals on the boat in protection from the flood which then goes on to ‘the conversion of the Jews’ which is also in the Old Testament, six thousand years later. He also makes It clear In the line ‘An hundred years should to to praise’, that she will be admired for hundreds of years to come but not loved. This poem is not a typical love poem, but rather one of lust. The man in the poem has a humorous and irony tone of voice when describing his exaggeration of love for his mistress.
Similarly, humor is used to describe Queen Gong’s love for her ‘little man’ In the line ‘he was small, but perfectly formed’ which Is comic as a man could not suffice a gorilla. She also describes him to a grape, giving readers the idea of how 1 OFF from a romantic perspective such as ‘his camp each night at dusk’, whereas His Coy Mistress uses famous times and places to describe his love such as ‘Thou by the Indian Ganges side’, and ‘Deserts of vast eternity’. Both poems set cliche romantic scenes but both have different themes and agendas.
The man in His Coy Mistress is tired of wasting time, that he does not have to spend as if a chariot is chasing him and his mistress at their back, and she will die a virgin otherwise. He makes this clear in then Worms shall try that long preserved virginity’. The message behind this relates to the famous quote in Latin, Carper Diem. It translates ‘seize the day’ and typically means that one should take action of the day as life is short. This relates to the poems historical content as it was written in 1650, and the average working class arson only lived till around 50.
He then follows on to describe images of her death and grave, where her ‘Honor turn to dust; and into ashes all my lust’. This seems to be the main seduction technique of the man behind the poem, logically presenting the argument to his mistress as he clearly has stated that he does not have time to spend. He uses words which are typically used in debates or arguments such as therefore, but and had. He uses similes, and describes what he would like to do her by comparing her to an ‘amorous bird of prey’, where readers picture predators earring up their prey, which is what he wants to do his Mistress.
He finally finishes the poem on a different note, using metaphysical ideas such as cosmic images to describe something earthly. This micro/macro is shown in the last two lines ‘Thus though we cannot make our sun stand still, yet we will make him run’. However, in comparison to Queen Kong, the gorilla describes acts of love performed by her such as ‘He slept in my fur’, ‘To massage’, ‘Blow on him’, and ‘Scratch with care’. She describes the love between her and her ‘little man’ of twelve years describing unnatural things for a gorilla to do to a man, such as sexual/physical acts.
She is possessive of him as she refers to him as ‘my man’, which is a role reversal as she is a gorilla and also a female. The poem ends in the little mans death, and after his death she ‘wears him now about my neck’, which is something humans do to animals, they are stuffed in order to preserve them, and she has now preserved her little man by stuffing him and wearing him around her neck. She now holds him ‘against my massive, breathing lungs, he hears me roar’, so he is kept close to her heart at all times.
