Herrick and Marvell Qs Select

Herrick and Marvell Qs Select two of Herrick's poems and discuss the representation of femininity. Consider: what theme, concept or abstraction does femininity embody? Could Herrick achieve the same thing with young men? In "A Defence of Women," Herrick lists several historic and/or legendary women, both good and bad, claiming that women cannot be typified by generalized claims.

In this instance, he could just as well have been talking about men, but it wouldn't have had the same effect (especially in poetry, where women are generally regarded as one way or the other). "The Cruel Maid," however, would not work at all with a masculine subject; the femininity here is a reflection of the speaker's masculinity, as though male defines female; the poem would be redundant is it were about a young man.

Explain how Robert Herrick's poem "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" employs the carpe diem theme. Herrick uses the carpe diem theme both to persuade young virgins not to be coy -- i.e. To give up their virginity -- and to marry, because youth is the best time for such endeavors and age might leave them without the opportunity for either sex or marriage. 3) Select one of the two "mower" poems and examine one of these three common pastoral themes.

How does it present itself? What images evoke the theme? In "The Mower, Against Gardens," Marvell evokes the theme of death early in the poem with the image of a "dead and standing pool of air." The rest of the poem deals with the seeming artificiality of life in light of the spiritual death that led man out of the Garden and into the world of Nature to begin with.

4) How does "To His Coy Mistress" compare to Herrick's "Upon Julia's Clothes"? What theme(s) and images do the two poems share? How is the treatment of women similar? Both of these poems use contrast to show the true beauty of the subject -- or at least to convince the subject that the speaker sees such beauty. They both share images of men (in both instances the speaker) being fascinated to the point of distraction by women (the subject of Herrick's and addressee of Marvell's).

The hyperbole employed by both poets serves to hyper-objectify women. 5) What is the lesson of "The Garden"? How is this.