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Introduction to Poetry 80% Essay: Comparison of two poems 1500 words (write the titles of your chosen poems
as the title of your essay; ‘A critical comparison between…’
A critical comparison between ‘The Spring’ by Thomas Carew and ‘The Sun Rising’ by John
Donne
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Whilst Carew’s lyric poem focuses on how love does not always go the way you wish it to; Donne’s
metaphysical poem conveys the immeasurable adoration the speaker has for their lover, even with
interference
...
Therefore, throughout this essay I will argue that both poems use the concepts
of nature, dissatisfaction and eternity to convey the speakers’ individual feelings of love
...
Within ‘The Spring’ Carew uses the motif of nature to present the seasons changing,
unlike the feelings of the speaker’s beloved
...
1 The latter half of the poem, however, reflects how the speaker’s beloved remains cold like
Winter, differing in the change of seasons from cold to warm
...
The use of ‘Marble ice’
connotes how despite that ice melts, this ice is made of marble and thus will never melt
...
Additionally, Carew uses
the paradox ‘dead swallow’ (line 7) to explore the belief that in the early times it was thought that
swallows hibernated in riverbanks, appearing dead, yet they would wake in the Spring
...
However, the motif of nature in ‘The Spring’ emphasises the difference with the speaker’s
feelings and their beloved’s
...
Within the poem, Donne personifies the sun, ‘Busy
old fool, unruly sun’2 to indicate how nature acts human like, by peering into their relationship
...
Moreover,
the anthropomorphic projection creates a parallel between the divine nature of love and nature
itself
...
Here, the use of the rhetorical question allows the
reader to perceive how the speaker questions the actions of nature towards love
...
Thus, the reader is encouraged, by Donne
using nature in this way, to understand how love and nature are interlinked in the feelings of the
speaker
...
In
‘The Spring’ the speaker expresses his dissatisfaction with their beloved’s feelings towards him
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The Norton Anthology of Poetry, 5th ed
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386, l
...
All further references to this text will be incorporated within the text
...
The Norton Anthology of Poetry, 5th ed
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295-296, l
...
Carew here, emphasises how dissatisfied the speaker
is with the lack of change in his beloved’s feelings, unlike the change in season
...
Here, the juxtaposed metaphor alludes to contrast of the lover’s feelings to the
elements of Summer
...
Therefore, within ‘The Spring’ feelings of love can be
interpreted as dissatisfying at times, as the speaker lacks to gain the affection of the one, he loves
...
Peterson discusses
that ‘the metaphysical conceit, a characteristic of Donne’s style’ presents a ‘plain style’3 to direct
the reader to the speaker’s discontent
...
This can
be seen through the rhetorical question, ‘Through windows, and through curtains call on us?’ (line
3), to convey how the speaker almost feels mocked by the sun and thus, questions its motive
...
Additionally, Donne uses imperatives like ‘Go tell’
(line 7) and ‘Look’ (line 16) to reinforce the image of the speaker arguing with the sun, highlighting
the grief the sun is causing
...

Finally, both poems present ideas about the eternity of love
...
Carew uses a pair of
reoccurring lovers of pastoral poetry, ‘Amynatas now doth with his Chloris sleep / Under a
sycamore’ (line 21-22) to convey how the perfect idea of eternal love within poetry, is not
experienced between the speaker and their lover
...
By doing this, time becomes isolated to convey how love exists
outside the boundaries of time, but also how with time, hardships upon the relationship become
apparent
...
Through this argument, it can be identified that
the speaker forms an internal dialogue to express his grief consuming him, for not gaining eternal
love reinforcing a differing love to it being perfect
...
The poem uses a
regular rhyme scheme (ABBACDCDEE) allowing the stanzas to be split into two quatrains and a
rhyming couplet
...
However, the irregular metre of the poem fragments
it to convey the hardships the sun is causing to this eternal harmony
...
This hyperbolic assertion of transcendent love encompasses a humanistic approach towards
the sun’s interference
...
Donne also uses an oxymoron, ‘Saucy pedantic wretch’
(line 5) to incorporate the positive and negative elements of the relationship together, to convey
how they experience a harmonious medium
...
Thus, the reader is left to understand how the
speaker perceives his love as eternal, even with hardships
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Paterson, “John Donne
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285-348, JSTOR, www
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org/stable/j
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12
...
2020
4
Johnathon Culler, “Theory of the Lyric”, Nordisk Poesi, Idunn, USA, 2017, pp
...
Whilst Carew’s poem acts as a self-dialogue expressing how love cannot
always go the way you wish it to; Donne’s poem expresses the feelings of euphoria and the
frustrations when that is disrupted
...
“What is ‘Metaphysical’ Poetry?” The Mississippi Quarterly, vol
...
1,
1959, pp
...
JSTOR, www
...
org/stable/26473385
...
2020
Preston, William
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” The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy,
vol
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57-74
...
jstor
...
Accessed 1 May 2020
...
“Notes on Lyric Poetry
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14, no
...

110-114
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jstor
...
Accessed 1 May 2020
...
“After the Critique of Lyric
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123, no
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195-200
...
jstor
...
Accessed 1 May 2020

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