In an essay consisting of five pages Andrew Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress' and William Blake's 'The Sick Rose' are compared in terms of the humann condition and the contrast between beauty and death. Three sources are cited in the bibliography.
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moment, or turn to prayer, but it is a topic that traditionally fascinated poets. For example, poets Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) and William Blake (1757-1827) addressed this subject
in their poems, respectively, "To His Coy Mistress" and "The Sick Rose." These poems are extremely different in form and content. However, they also contain similarities in regards to
theme. In both poems, the reader is forced to confront the physical reality of death, and the decay that will inevitably follow the cessation of life. In both poems, the
decay of death is contrasted against the beauty and vibrancy of life. Therefore, both poems can be seen has having a similar carpe diem orientation toward the human condition, sending
the message to the reader to treasure life and savor it, realizing all the while that it is transitory. In Marvells Coy Mistress, the carpe diem is much more
frankly expressed then in Blakes poem, which is quite brief. The point to Marvells poem is seduction, to convince a woman that the joy of the moment is all that
she should consider. Therefore, he begins by being very seductive, saying, "Had we but world enough, and time, / This coyness, lady, were no crime" (lines 1-2, p. 815).
In other words, if aging and death were not part of the human condition, that is, if there was time, her "coyness" (i.e. her modesty) would be of no consequence.
The poet/narrator would take his time wooing her, from ten years before the flood (the story of Noah from the Old Testament) till the "conversion of the Jews" (predicted
in Revelation has coming before Judgement Day) (line 10, p. 815). In other words, he would woo her for centuries, taking a century just to describe her eyes. He