Comparing Porphyria's Lover By Andrew Marvel

As a literary work, poetry contains a mystery. The emotions put in by the author creates a certain tone and the right word must be used carefully to portray the true meaning of the poet. Porphyria’s Lover by Robert Browning and To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell both share the sense of dramatics and intense feelings in their poems. Through the images and metaphors throughout both works, we can compare and contrast the underlying meaning of Browning and Marvell’s poems. What is love? According to His Coy Mistress, Marvell explains love as a sexual relationship. He claims his promise to compliment her and admire her beauty for his “vegetable (flourishing) love should grow/vaster than empires”. Browning’s poem is similar in this kind of way, but reverse. In Porphyria’s Lover, she worshipped her lover. Unlike the mistress in His Coy Mistress, Porphyria wanted to give herself to him because that’s how much she loved him. The work states “murmuring how she loved me—she/too weak
In His Coy Mistress, the speaker’s tone was eager and eerie in stanza II. In the first stanza, he complimented her as if time was endless. But as the poem continued, we can guess that she was “coy” towards him and wouldn’t give him the lust he craved. He says to her “Time’s winged chariot hurrying near/and yonder all before us lie/ deserts of vast eternity/…/ then worms shall try/ that long-preserved virginity”. They didn’t have forever and if she did not give him her virginity, time will consume them. However, the real violence ended up in Porphyria’s Lover. The man loved her. He claimed that she was “perfectly pure”. But without a warning, he strangles her. The poem states “In one yellow sting I would/ Three times her little throat around/…/ I am quite sure she felt no pain.” Each of the poems contained a sort of abuse, verbal or physical. However, only one lover lost a