Marie Bliss

9/23/22
AP English Literature and Composition
Ms. O’Grady

Love has many forms, yet when we mention love people automatically assume it is

romantic. In reality, the spectrum of love is vast and all forms are equally valid as romantic love.

Andrew Marvell utilizes “To His Coy Mistress'' to express his romantic love for a woman in an

urgent and intense way. On the other hand, Matthew Arnold in “Dover Beach” expresses how we

lack the love and compassion humanity deserves. While Arnold and Marvell heavily depend on

metaphors and imagery, the two pieces convey love in a very different way.

The love Marvell depicts in “To His Coy Mistress” is skewed and manipulative. This

piece demonstrates a love story where the narrator is obsessive and longing for the love interest.

The use of sexual and obsessive metaphors this piece portrays the romantic relationship as

dependent of an unhealthy power dynamic. For example, Marvell writes, “An hundred years

should go to praise thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze; two hundred to adore each breast, but

thirty thousand to the rest; an age at least to every part, and the last age should show your heart.”

This metaphor comes across as loving or adoring on their own but within the larger context they

become quite manipulative. In contrast Marvell declares “Thy beauty shall no more be found,

nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound my echoing song: then worms shall try that long preserved

virginity, and your quaint honour turn to dust, and into ashes all my lust….” The way the narrator

conveys the mistress’ virginity makes it clear that his intentions are only sexual and the idea of

her no longer being a virgin disgusts him, making his lust turn into ashes and her “honour”

disappear. These two excerpts contrast each other since the first excerpt is loving and depicts a

sense of adoration while the second is patronizing and degrading. This portrays a manipulative
relationship with an apparent power dynamic where the narrator has control in the relationship

and uses it to his advantage. Though parts of the poem depict love sweetly, the bigger picture

shows that the narrator is actually destructive, as opposed to the second poem which is

contrasting in theme and topic.

Meanwhile, “Dover Beach” depicts the narrator’s desperate love for humanity and desire

to see it restored. Matthew Arnold conveys a calm and melancholy state, where the narrator is on

a boat in the sea describing sounds around him as well as emotions and thoughts that are

triggered by his situation. This piece is about war and humanity, as Arnold writes “Hath really

neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on

a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash

by night.”, he states there is a deficit of peace, joy, and love in this world, Arnold feels deep

sorrow. This next excerpt further proves my argument, “Sophocles long ago Heard it on the

Ægean, and it brought Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human misery; we Find also in

the sound a thought, Hearing it by this distant northern sea.” Here Arnold uses Sophocles as a

way to draw a parallel to ancient human tendencies and modern human tendencies, in simpler

words, many years ago we, humans, made each other suffer and we simply repeated history. This

piece explains how cruel the world can be, how dark and miserable human life can become due

to war and lack of humanity.

Both of these poems express a longing for love. Although love can be related and interpreted as a

universal feeling, these two pieces contrast each other because although both authors speak of
love, they are varying types of love. The metaphors in these two pieces are divergent because

these two narrators are not experiencing the same feeling although they share the same emotion.

In conclusion, love is a spectrum that reaches infinite ends and everything in between is

subjective. These two pieces have an emotion in common while being so vastly different. This

difference holds meaning and changes an analysis completely. Imagery and metaphors can easily

distract from the topic which is exactly why some might believe these two poems are very

similar and do not contrast each other. Focusing on the topic and analyzing the metaphors

accordingly leads to a different understanding.

 Arnold, Matthew. “Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry
Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43588/dover-beach.

“Andrew Marvell.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.,

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Andrew-Marvell-English-poet.

“Matthew Arnold.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation,

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/matthew-arnold.

“Matthew Arnold.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.,

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Matthew-Arnold.

Marvell, Andrew. “To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry
Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44688/to-his-coy-mistress.