Poetic Conversation

Marvell's poem focuses on the more tangible parts of a relationship and is more related to a lust rather than a love, using words such as "Two hundred to adore each breast" to show this sort of relationship. Even the title itself conveys its meaning-- "To His Coy Mistress" has such meaning for what the poem is actually focusing on. Macleish's poem is very different and much more vague, as the title and the words in it have more of a relationship with traveling and worldly experiences. I mean, each stanza is about somewhere different, seeing phrases such as "And here upon earth’s noonward height" show that the meaning behind all of it isn't as specific as Marvell's poem.

Mark Strand's essay is actually incredibly powerful and thus, exemplifies the power of poetry and authorship in his essay. I find his essay interesting because it talks about specific things in the poem that I would not have thought of otherwise. All of the poems talk about the experience of life being vast and sometimes not understandable, which is why I think that the poems are relatable to anyone- people always feel lost in a vast and confusing place. Strand talks about that and also points out things that people who aren't poets normally wouldn't notice.

And just because I was curious, I looked up both Marvell and Macleish.
 

 

Definitely not how I would picture either, and seeing as though MacLeish's poem's title had Marvell's name in it, it was interesting to see.