Comparison of Poetic Devices - Essay Example

William Shakespeare is one of the most renowned playwrights and poets around the globe. His poems from previous centuries have remained influential in modern times. Notably, they are still rich in poetic devices and have been the focus of many analysts in modern times. Without a doubt, Shakespeare’s work is highly influential to modern poets. On the other hand, Andrew Marvell also wrote poems that have proved to be influential up to date inspiring modern poets. The themes and devices used by both of these poets have remained aspects of analysis as more and more artists venture into analyzing their work. This paper will compare Shakespeare’s poem titled, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” and Marvell’s poem titled, “To his coy mistress”.

Marvell’s poem “To his coy mistress” depicts a male speaker addressing his mistress. The speaker speaks in reference to how much time he will spend loving the mistress and uses different ideas linked to time to convince the mistress that the relationship needs a deeper level of commitment. In a bid to achieve this purpose, Marvell made use of numerous devices to place emphasis on his theme. From the title of the poem, one can begin to understand the male speaker and the words that he utters to his mistress. Evidently, the term used “coy” implies that the mistress is reserved explaining why the speaker makes efforts to convince her. He makes use of imagery such as “vegetable love” to place emphasis on the kind of love he had for the mistress. This type of imagery brings about the idea that his love was fresh and blossoming and with a great capacity to grow. Moreover, he also uses an additional imagery “Times winged chariot” (Marvell). In a real sense, time does not have a chariot to signal people. However, Marvell used this imagery to emphasize his fear that time would pass by too soon, leaving them without an opportunity for their love.

On the other hand, Shakespeare wrote his highly influential poem “Shall I compare thee to Summer’s Day” which also depicts a male speaker addressing a woman. In this poem, the speaker places emphasis on the beauty and youth of the loved woman. Just like Marvell, Shakespeare was an expert in the use of imagery which he relied on in the development of the theme of love and praise to the woman. In reference to the woman’s youth, he says, “But thy eternal summer shall not fade” (Shakespeare). This powerful imagery is used to illustrate the woman’s beauty and youth which are not subject to fading for reasons that Shakespeare presents in the sentences that follow. In different imagery in the same poem, Shakespeare says, “And often is gold complexion dimmed”. In this line, Shakespeare addresses the sun as though it was a human being with a golden face while in a real sense, he refers to its light being dimmed by clouds. Without a doubt, Shakespeare had expertise in the use of poetic devices to develop his theme.