Sonnet 60’s capitalization occurs when the speaker says, “And Time that gave doth now his gift confound,” which suggests a sort of godly or biblical authority (8). ![]() ![]() The word “time” appears once in each verse of “To His Coy Mistress,” and unlike Shakespeare, Marvell does not capitalize it each time (only in the aforementioned instance, presumably due to the line break). “But,” writes Marvell, “at my back I always hear / Time’s winged chariot hurrying near” (21-22). Marvell also sees time in this Shakespearian fashion, as his second verse takes a turn to bring the reader back to reality-out of the world wherein space and time are nonexistent, where one can devote an “age at least to every part” in praising the mistress. In other words, Shakespeare, or at least the speaker, see immortality through poetry-his song as a defense against the darkness that awaits us all. Simply and eloquently explained by Robert Arbour, “Sonnet 60 portrays time as a destructive, implacable force, but it concludes with a hopeful message of the preservation of human value through poetry” (Arbour). Shakespeare depicts time as a powerful, personified male villain who is cruel in his “glory fight,” rendering time as something resembling more of a grim reaper figure than a system of measurement. These two opening lines from Sonnet 55 bear a striking resemblance, if not in meter sonority, then in content, to the two final lines from Sonnet 60: “And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand, / Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand” (13-14). ![]() In Sonnet 60, for instance, the speaker discusses time (with a capital T, personified as a “he”) and therefore the inextricably linked themes of life and death. Such a theme is not hard to find in Shakespeare’s famous sonnets. The speaker claims even the rock solid, glorious statues of royalty can be outlived, not necessarily outshined, by the words of a poor poet. Unlike in Marvell’s first two lines, the speaker addresses no one in particular, but rather states a bold thesis: none of these tangible, strong, powerful symbols will last longer than the very poem the reader has before him or her. In the beginning of Sonnet 55, Shakespeare writes, “Not marble, nor the gilded monuments / Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme” (1-2). This is an interesting analysis for a poem that does not explicitly discuss poetry as an art form, as opposed to Shakespeare’s sonnet, which does so in its opening lines. Or, as Jules Brody writes, “Under another set of rules, the narrating voice is made to say, I would love and woo you as poets do in their books I would unfold and enact my patient, selfless adoration in extravagant versions of the accustomed literary forms” (Brody 58). This opening seems simple enough to comprehend: if not for the undeniable truth that we (speaker and “lady”) all die, it would be less problematic for the lover to be timid or bashful or withholding. Marvell’s poem opens with the rhyme: “Had we but world enough, and time, / This coyness, lady, were no crime” (1-2). The first two couplets of the two poems can provide great insight into their themes and messages. The speaker in Marvell’s poem shows-in a way that might offend, provoke, and certainly challenge the other poet-that his song may echo, but it will still fail to grant him the satisfaction he so greatly desires in life. However, the key to contrasting them comes in the singular moment when Marvell blatantly says something about poetry and his work of art. While Shakespeare focuses more on the proud immortality of his poems and everlasting praise of his subjects, Marvell focuses more on what sounds like a desperately eloquent call for sex (be it for physical pleasure or procreation) with his subject. The poems emphasize mortality-the approaching doom and death-in a similar way that presents time as a personified villain that might be depressing but definitely truthful. ![]() The ideas illustrated through the lines reveal somewhat of a mutual disdain for death, as well as a passion to live and love. Marvell’s poem and specifically Shakespeare’s sonnets 55 and 60 have undeniably divergent content but nevertheless convey themes relating to life, death, and love. The meaning behind both Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” and Shakespeare’s sonnets has been debated since their respective publications.
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