Poetry Comparison Paper

In my poetry comparison paper, I plan to compare and contrast the relative effectiveness of the figurative language in the poems "Porphyria's Lover" and "To His Coy Mistress." Romantic love is a subject of both of these poems, but each poem's use of figurative language is quite different from the other's.

In "Porphyria's Lover," personification is used to establish the setting of the dramatic monologue. Lines 2-4 state that "The sullen wind was soon awake,/It tore the elm-tops down for spite,/And did its worst to vex the lake." Giving the wind human emotions and abilities allows the audience to sense the intensity of the weather that evening. However, the poem "To His Coy Mistress" utilizes personification to emphasize the hasty passing of time. The speaker urges his beloved to devour their time together, rather than suffer in "his [time's] slow-chapped power" (line 40). He concludes his argument with the statement, "though we cannot make our sun/ Stand still, yet we will make him run" (lines 45-46). He implies that his lover can choose to either suffer slowly through the passing of time or take full advantage of their time together.

A simile is used in "Porphyria's Lover" to describe the way in which Porphyria's lifeless body seemed to forbid her lover to touch her. The speaker states, "As a shut bud that holds a bee,/I warily oped her lids," as though he were scared of what he might find behind her eyelids (lines 43-44). Yet the similes in "To His Coy Mistress" have two purposes. They describe the inviting, fresh beauty of the speaker's lover, as in "the youthful hue/ Sits on thy skin like morning glew" (lines 33-34). They also expose the way in which the speaker desires to spend his time with his lover. He states, "Now let us [...] like amorous birds of prey,/Rather at once our time devour" (lines 38-39).

In my paper, I may also explore the use of metaphors, allusions, and understatement, and their effects on the development of the poems, but I think that discussing the similes and personification will be a logical way to start.