Love Poetry

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Analysis of selected love-poetry

  • Deadline: Monday, February 1st 2010


  • Complete analysis of poem on the basis of worksheet (the handwritten one, "1. Gist of poem ...") + information (some sentences) on author and time, when poem/song was written


  • Preparation of a presentation for the course (ideally a digital document that is used to (interactively) show (digital whiteboard ==> pen or with highlighting funktion in Word/Writer) what you have found.


  • Written version of your analysis on your user-page in the rmg-wiki.




Thomas Campion - There is a Garden in her Face (1601)

There is a garden in her face
Where roses and white lilies grow;
A heav'nly paradise is that place
Wherein all pleasant fruits do flow.
There cherries grow which none may buy,
Till "Cherry ripe" themselves do cry.
Those cherries fairly do enclose
Of orient pearl a double row,
Which when her lovely laughter shows,
They look like rose-buds fill'd with snow;
Yet them nor peer nor prince can buy,
Till "Cherry ripe" themselves do cry.
Her eyes like angels watch them still,
Her brows like bended bows do stand,
Threat'ning with piercing frowns to kill
All that attempt with eye or hand
Those sacred cherries to come nigh,
Till "Cherry ripe" themselves do cry.
  1. What is the rhyme scheme?
  2. What parts of the poem are there?
  3. Who is the speaker talking about and what is his “message”?
  4. What images are used and what do they imply?


Andrew Marvell(1621-1678): To His Coy Mistress

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20
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40
Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, Lady, were no crime
We would sit down and think which way
To walk and pass our long love's day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges' side
Shouldst rubies find- I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood,
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow;
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.[…]
But at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
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 grave 's a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.
Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew, […]
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapt power.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Through the iron gates of life
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
  1. man talking to his mistress, main message, seize the day - carpe diem!
  2. poem written in couplets (a-a, b-b, c-c, ...) but not boring/monotonous, partly due to enjambements
  3. There are three parts:
  • If they had time he would spend ages on describing her beauty
  • But: he thinks they don't have enough time/shouldn't wait, as people must die and her beauty and his desire will not last
  • Therefore he urges her to use the time and live and love now


  1. Who is the speaker talking to and about and what is the “message”?
  2. What is the rhyme scheme?
  3. What parts and argumentative strategies/tricks can you find? Is there a turning point?
  4. What images and rhetorical tricks are used and how do they work?
  5. Do the use of language, division into parts and rhythm support the message?


Modern Prose Versions of the "Carpe Diem" Theme in Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress ..."

"Translate" the argument and rhetorical strategies and images of the speaker in Marvell's poem into modern, less biblical or classical - but still powerful prose ==> Write a pledge of a boy or man who wants to convince a woman/girl ...! The man's position is that given in Marvell's piece! Remember: the man is trying to be persuasive!

Von „http://rmg.zum.de/index.php?title=LK_Englisch/thelenberg_2009_11/Love_Poetry&oldid=27385“