To His Coy Mistress and the Beggar Woman

Oral Assessment of To His Coy Mistress and The Beggar Women

1. The Beggar woman was written by William King during the 17th Century, similarly the poem To His Coy Mistress was also written during the early 17th Century by Andrew Marvell. They both represent the social class differences between men and women and in both poems women were inferior to the men.

2. Marvell was a metaphysical poet, this was a group of pets from the early 1600’s who were concerned with the subject of what it is to be human, they also tended to concentrate on those aspects that seem to set us aside from other animals such as love and relationships. Marvell structured his poem as an argument so that he was able to use more emotive language and split it up into different methods of persuasion. Metaphysical poems are characterised by the use of wit, irony and wordplay although they are comical on the surface, they deal with serious topics underneath.

3. Marvell begins his argument by painting a picture of an ideal world to flatter her. Throughout stanza 1 he uses various methods of flattery and exaggeration in order to get what he wants. He tries to impress her with big numbers such as “An hundred years should go to praise”. This is also a form of exaggeration. He also uses metaphor and more exaggeration further into the stanza and he says “vaster than empires”. This is a historical reference which would help convince her. Another method of persuasion he uses is contrast to suggest that she is more important than him, “Though by the Indian Ganges side shouldst rubies find, I by the tide of Humber”. He is comparing her to the beautiful river Indian Ganges and also mentions rubies which are a beautiful rare jewel. He then talks about him being by the tide of Humber which is in England and far less beautiful. This is unusual for him to say that she is better than him considering the social classes of men and women at the time.

4. The anti-thesis is an explanation of the problem...