In the following poems, the different poets show a verity of different attitudes towards love. In his poem ”To His Coy Mistress” Marvell is ambiguous, as we do not know weather Marvell’s feelings are actually genuinely towards his lover or weather he is just trying to get her to sleep with him. Blake on the other hand sees love as being a dark and dangerous thing, which he shows through the imagery in the poem. Finally Rosseti’s attitude is a personal and mostly positive one towards the subjects of love and death.
In the poem “To His Coy Mistress”, Marvell talks about a man who is saying to his lover that if they had all the time in the world her shyness about having sex would be fine and he could spend hundreds of years admiring her. However in the second part (stanza) Marvell’s poetry it becomes some what darker and more realistic, as he explains to her the truth about how they don’t have all this time and that if she doesn’t have sex soon then she could die a virgin and then all the worms would eat her virginity away. In the last part (stanza) he concludes his poem by telling her why they should have sex soon.
The poem is ambiguous because we do not know the true reason for writing this poem, as he could be just trying to get her to sleep with him or it could be his genuine feelings:
“And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.”
In the quote above Marvell is saying that he would be willing to wait for her to be ready to have sex with him even if it takes forever, this could be Marvell showing his honest love for her or just trying to impress her by being sweet just to sleep with her.
“An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze.”
Yet again we do not know if Marvell is trying to express his true feelings for her or it could be him trying to be sweet once again, but unlike before in this quote he is using a hyperbole. A hyperbole is where you greatly exaggerate something.
“My echoing song: then worms shall try
That long-preserved virginity.”
In this quote Marvell appears to be encouraging her to sleep with him, as he gives her the image of worms taking/eating her virginity after she dies.
Overall Marvell uses his ambiguity to express his attitude towards love, from his poem we can tell his attitude towards love is mixed there is the good side where you can have a long time just admiring each other and just being in love but then, there is the part when time and death catch up with you, break you up and bring the sadness into the love.
In the poem “The Sick Rose”, the poet Blake shows us his negative attitude towards love. He shows us his attitude through the use of imagery; the imagery shows us the more dangerous, threatening and dark side of love:
“And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.”
Even in the title of the poem Blake uses imagery to show his attitude towards love and death:
“The Sick Rose.”
This title would be something like rose but Blake is different to any other poet he twists it around to show us his personal attitude towards love. He does this by making the rose sick, both love and death in one, which makes it less romantic but more depressing and sad.
This poem is a bit like “To His Coy Mistress.” As they are both ambiguous in their own way, however “The Sick Rose.” Is alot more ambiguous and confusing as you can only guess the meanings of the imagery that he uses:
“The invisible worm
That flies in the night.”
But unlike the other two poems, Blake’s is less personal and more general, so that it could be about anyone as the other two poems are quite personal and are more about the writer.
Blake’s poem is also very dramatic, to the point when talking about the corruption of a relationship when death interferes:
“Does thy life destroy.”
Overall Blake uses a lot of imagery to show his negative attitude towards love, as both time and death will destroy the love of a relationship by separating them.
In the poem “Remember” Rosseti shows her attitude towards death and love through the personal ness and nostalgic ness of the poem.
Unlike the other poems, “Remember” is not ambiguous at all; it is very straight forward and direct as she talks about her partner mourning for her after her death:
“It will be late then to counsel or to pray.”
Also this poem is unlike the others as it does not show a negative attitude towards death, we know that in the poem the couple have a strong bond as they have a “Our future” “planned” and yet still when she is facing death she is more concerned of how her parnter will cope then she is of her own life:
“Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.”
In the poem Rosseti gives it a personal feeling by including memories from the relationship that they will no longer be able to do after he death:
“When you can no more hold me by the hand
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.”
Rosseti also shows us death in a less threatening way when describing it; this is unlike “The Sick Rose” and “To His Coy Mistress”. However, what they do have in common is the fact that a relationship is being ended due to the fact that a partner is about to die or has died.
Overall Rosseti’s attitude towards love is a more personal and positive than both the other poems, she talks about death with no fear and is more concerned about the future and what her partner will do without her. She does this by using small amounts of romantic language, a single piece of imagery and her own personal memories.
In conclusion the three poets and poems all have very different attitudes towards and different ways of expressing these attitudes. The first poet was Marvell uses ambiguity to express his mixed attitude towards love, as there is a good side with the loving and companionship, and the bad side where the relationship is split up by time or death. The second poet was Blake. Blake used imagery to shoe us his very negative attitude towards death, as he beieves that love is ultimately doomed, as once again the relationship will be ended by death or time. The last poet was Rosseti. Rosseti used her personal and nostalgic memories to give her positive attitude towards love and unlike the other poems she talks about death with no fear and is more worried about her partner than herself.
