English is a silly language. One may use the ineffable concept of love to describe even the simplest generic pleasures and say, for example, "I loved that meal." Similarly, modern society has tainted the concept with the euphemism, "Making love," which insinuates that the sexual act creates love. The speaker in Andrew Marvell's poem, "To His Coy Mistress," likewise places an overzealous emphasis on intercourse. Conversely, speakers in the works of Edna St. Vincent Millay balance the ideas much more fairly. As an illustration of this, the first stanza of "To His Coy Mistress" will be compared to "Women Have Loved Before As I Love Now;" and the second to "Love is Not Blind." The stance on the importance of procreation in Marvell's poem will finally be compared to that of Millay's "I, Being Born A Woman And Distressed." Juxtaposing the works of these two poets, one must regard the treatment of sexuality in Marvell's poem as not only offensive to women, but also offensive to love itself.
It is truly ironic that the beginning of "To His Coy Mistress" is actually tantamount with the concepts in "Women Have Loved Before As I Love Now." Both speak of a grand love. Millay's speaker compares herself with Cleodhna, a figure in Irish folklore similar to the Classical Sirens, and also with Helen of Troy, the woman whose love devastated Greece and Troy. Marvell's protagonist speaks of a love that has existed since the Flood, which Noah survived, and professes that it will continue until the End of Days. He refers to his as a vegetable love, (11) perhaps referring to the nurturing of a vegetable to make it flourish, or maybe referring to the vegetative part of a plant as opposed to the fruit or reproductive part. However, as the true intentions of Marvell's speaker are revealed, we see that it is not "Love like a burning city in the breast," (8) as it is in "Women Have Loved Before..." but rather lust burning like a city elsewhere. Even the first stanza alludes to this. As people in their old age are sometimes referred to as vegetables, perhaps he is saying that this form of love would be useless. The chronology of the poem also appears to be in retrograde. He begins with his most powerful statement: that his love is endless, and ends by talking about her physical features, which seems backwards when compared to a love poem such as Shakespeare's "My Mistress's Eyes Are Nothing Like The Sun." This patriarchal tone is understated, but not for long.
In one of literature's most famous Voltas, Marvell changes gears completely and his speaker's nature is unveiled. Whereas the first stanza is all about a timeless and ageless love, the second stanza presents the Carpe Diem ideology. The speaker hyperbolically states that they must have sex now, because youth is fleeting and soon they will be dead. However, because he says that he "always hear[s] / Time's winged chariot hurrying near," (21-22) one is lead to believe that the speaker is much older than the virgin girl he is addressing; and yet he tries to make her into feeling mortality in the same way that he does, saying that her youthful beauty will soon dwindle, and desperately makes an attempt at frightening her with the imagery created in lines 27 and 28. The importance of the girl's youth in the man's eyes is in stark contrast with the importance of beauty to the speaker in "Love Is Not Blind." This speaker asserts her subject's "ugliness" (2) and "imperfection," (3) but states that these traits are unimportant: "So am I caught when I say, 'Not fair,' / 'Tis but as if I said, 'Not here - not there.'" (10-11) However, the most interesting comparison between these two poems lies within the direction of the Volta. Millay's poem moves from a lack in sexual attractiveness towards the "sovereignty of love" (9); "To His Coy Mistress" moves from a love "[v]aster than empires" (12) to "lust" (30), placing the importance of sexuality over that of love.
The next stanza and poem both address the sexual act itself. Marvell's poem has been an argument building up to this segment, in which he pleads his case: seize the day; and also confesses his ultimate goal: "let us sport while we may" (37). "I, Being Born A Woman And Distressed," on the other hand, portrays sex and procreation merely as biological necessities, caused perhaps by "propinquity" (3), or maybe by societal norms, as alluded to in line 2. Millay's speaker appears to view the act of sex as nothing more than a bodily function, a result of her "stout blood against [her] staggering brain" (10). This is fine as a concept for internal conflict, but not as it appears in Marvells poem, in which it is his stout blood against her staggering heart. More important to the comparison of these two works is the difference in situation for the characters. While the Carpe Diem motif is present in each, Millays characters appear to be more or less equally experienced sexually, whereas in Marvells poem, a hypothetical commitment is used as an initial mask in order to ease the virgin girl into the idea of sex. Ironically, it is in this way that the speaker himself is coy in modern terms, that is.
Millays characters love in the timeless way that Marvells speaker cannot afford; and when they do not love, they rightly do not pretend to love. Marvells speaker is consumed with desire, mocking what may be the greatest aspect of the human condition. Sex is meaningless in comparison to love, and his zeal is with the weaker. It is not, All you need is sex. Romeo and Juliet were not looking for a fling. This character wants to make love; but it is a false love, conjured in the loins rather than the heart. One is left to wonder at the answer this mans proposition received, but this much is certain: none of the characters in Millays works would have been his meal.
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