Poetry Essay
...poets studied this year share a similar exploration into the complex emotions of relationships. Each poet employs specific techniques to effectively emphasise this theme. Andrew Marvell explores passion and lust through the juxtaposition of images, whilst William Blake utilizes symbolic images to portray his negative attitude towards aspects of physical love. Both Pablo Neruda and Sylvia Plath study the loss of love through repetition, exaggerating the heartache and pain felt as a result of this loss of love. Pablo Neruda also refers to time passing to show the impact of having loved, whereas Marvell uses references to time to evoke a sense of urgency. The emotions expressed by these poets are ultimately presented through clever crafting, such as metaphors, symbols and tone.
Both William Blake's poem 'The Sick Rose' and Andrew Marvell's poem 'To His Coy Mistress' represent selfish love; love based on a physical, instant attraction that rarely lasts. Blake uses symbols, imagery and effective metaphors to present the theme of experiences of adult life destroying innocence. 'The Sick Rose' deals with the loss of a young girl's virginity. The young girl is metaphorically represented by the rose. A rose is a symbol of beauty and love, it is a feminine image but the word sick immediately contradicts the symbol of the rose, sending a very negative image to the reader. “The invisible worm” is an unknown threat it, could perhaps represent the man who has taken the young girl's virginity and destroyed her innocence. The image of the rose contrasts with that of the worm. Whilst the rose is a thing of beauty, the worm is seen as slimy and dirty, symbolising death and decay. 'The Sick Rose' tells of the destruction that aspects of physical love can cause whilst Marvell presents a much more light hearted, tongue-in-cheek view of the theme. Marvell uses a dramatic sense of...
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