im finding it hard in english to compare these poems, sonet 43 which i have heard all your opinions on some1 elses board but i need help with to his coy mistree, is it about him wanting to sleep with her and rushing her, or is it about him warning us to take our time inlife and do things that we will enjoy while we still have the time? please help the poem is this any way for any1 hu hasnt heard it:

Had we but World enough, and Time,
This coyness Lady were no crime.
We would sit down, and think which way
To walk, and pass our long Loves Day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges side
Should'st Rubies find: I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood:
And you should if you please refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than Empires, and more slow.
An hundred years should grow to praise
Thine Eyes, and on thy Forehead Gaze.
Two hundred to adore each Breast:
But thirty thousand to the rest.
An Age at least to every part,
And the last Age should show your Heart.
For Lady you deserve this State;
Nor would I love at lower rate.

But at my back I alwaies hear
Times winged Charriot hurrying near:
And yonder all before us lye
Desarts of vast Eternity.
Thy Beauty shall no more be found;
Nor, in thy marble Vault, shall sound
My echoing Song: then Worms shall try
That long preserv'd Virginity:
And you quaint Honour turns to dust;
And into ashes all my Lust.
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace.

Now therefore, while the youthful hew
Sits on thy skin like morning [dew],
And while thy willing Soul transpires
At every pore with instant Fires,
Now let us sport us while we may;
And now, like am'rous birds of prey,
Rather at once our Time devour,
Than languish in his slow-chapt pow'r.
Let us roll all our Strength, and all
Our sweetness, up into one Ball:
And tear our Pleasures with rough strife,
Through the Iron gates of Life.
Thus, though we cannot make our Sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.

Here you go:

[snipurl.com]


Les



Post Edited (09-03-04 15:50)

thanx les :D

ok, thanx les that was ok but it didnt provide an anaysis!:S help me some1 its for my GCSE coursework and its the $th assignment that i havent done! i can go in and say that i didnt understand and my teach will just think its an excuse because 'i am fully capable of completing such a simple essay' damn! i just need some help, if any1 could please tell me what message he is trying to put accross i will be fine, thanx before hand

Kate, I'm not going to try to do poem 'analysis' for you, but in answer to the main question you asked, the poet is telling the girl he fancies that if only life lasted for ever he would be happy to spend lots and lots of time wooing her, but as it doesn't, and death is what lasts for ever, she should not be so 'coy' (= shy/reluctant) about becoming his 'mistress' (I'm sure you know what that means) while they both have their health and strength.

Learn to use the internet search engines, kates.

[tinyurl.com]

Isn't providing a little help and discussion outside of search engine results the point of having a Homework forum? If posters are to be castigated for not using Google, then we might as well ask Rudy and Aaron to shut this forum down.

Good question kates. Is this a literal exhortation to a mistress to sleep with him or is the poem a metaphor for ensuring that we make good use of the time allotted to us? Why can't it be both? Poems don't have to have single meanings.

The literal analysis is quite straight forward. The poem has a beginning, a middle and an end. Treat it sequentially and I feel sure that you will find it relatively easy to describe each section. No reason why, in your summary, you shouldn't allude to the possibility that it also serves as a metaphor for a wider purpose.

>The poem has a beginning, a middle and an end.

Personally, I feel my response was a great deal more help to the original poster than yours, assuming the link was clicked, that is. Showing how to find information available on the internet should not constitute a rebuke.

Others may disagree. So be it.

Really, so you have personally reviewed the links there and can vouch for their quality?

Your recent treatment of Student05 who had done more work than most that post here was nothing short of disgraceful. Accused of being a troll for posting elsewhere, where no response had been received to her question. You continue to owe her an apology.

There is always this:

Hugh Clary wrote:

> As luck would have it, I have a surplus of answers lying
> around, so bring on the questions. Here is a sample for you,
>
> "The boy stood on the burning deck" by Felicia Hemans. Now, if
> we were only on Jeopardy ...

The epitome of helpfulness, perhaps? Not just unhelpful but potentially offputting to others that might want to post sensibly for help.

For this forum, I am increasingly of the view that Les's issue of having guidelines as to how to post a question would be useful. Along with guidelines as to how to post an answer and the avoidance of smart sarcasm.



Post Edited (09-05-04 16:07)

A thought from Piet Hein:

THE OVERDOERS

Truth shall emerge from the interplay
of attitudes freely debated.
Don't be misled by fanatics who say
that only one truth should be stated:
truth is constructed in such a way
that it can't be exaggerated.

I'm with chesil. How often has one of Hugh's swift kicks to the balls sent me sulking to my den, vowing never to darken emule's doorstep again?



Stephen

Oh, wow, ad hominem attacks, how shocking. As luck would have it, I have experienced a great deal of personal growth lately, so I shall not allow cheap shots to dishearten me.

First, I must hasten to point out that the homework forum would not even exist, were it not for me. At the point in time when I first stumbled in here, participants were trotting out the old 'we refuse to help with homework questions' platitude, and no one received any kind of answer at all to such queries. I suggested, with plain-spoken bluntness, that such a reply was likely based on a fear of subsequently being proved wrong. That logic finally prevailed.

Second, I would argue that even today I provide more help to the various petitioners than my detractors do. That some responses are not seen to be politically correct does not eliminate all those where benefit is obtained by our visitors.

Third, keep in mind that this is the internet, folks. Merely words flickering on a computer screen. Nobody dies. Nobody even bleeds. Sticks 'n stones, innit.

Hugh's ability to field all questions is a virtue in and of itself.

My own personal bias on the matter of homework questions is that most are genuine attempts by someone to get some help.

The posters often suffer varying degrees of ineptitude and some quite probably are just posting queries to get a response, any response. I try to give them some answer which may, or may not, be helpful to their specific needs. Whether they are spoofing us or not, I treat most of the questioners seriously.

I particularly like those questions which are specific in nature. Many of the posters ask questions about poems, such as, The Road Not Taken, which we have discussed at length on e-mule. These queries are not just shots in the dark. I believe they are genuine attempts to better understand poetry and poets whose words may not be so clear to the uninitiated.

Les



Post Edited (09-06-04 21:25)

Lack of political correctness, baloney, just rudeness and sophistry to defend it.

And there we must, we really must, leave it folks.



Stephen

He is saying that, because they are not immortal, they have no time for being coy. if he had all the time in the world, he would gladly humour her coyness, but as every second goes by, she is getting less lovely as Death draws ever closer. basically, he is trying in a very round-about way, to get an easy shag!

he is saying that if he had all th etime in the world being shy would not be a crime.he refers to her coyness as a crime because it would be a violation to nature.. he wants her to take advantage of her youth and beauty. he says that they will look foward to death and emptiness and that theres nothing after death...its eternal.
the speaker tries to persuade an attractive person to take present advantage of youth and good looks and to give in to love now, before time and age have taken their toll.

A frequently repeated theme. Here's a copy by Billy Shake:


O MISTRESS mine, where are you roaming?
O, stay and hear! your true love 's coming,
That can sing both high and low:
Trip no further, pretty sweeting;
Journeys end in lovers meeting,
Every wise man's son doth know.

What is love? 'tis not hereafter;
Present mirth hath present laughter;
What 's to come is still unsure:
In delay there lies no plenty;
Then come kiss me, sweet-and-twenty!
Youth 's a stuff will not endure.

im so stuck in my course work i cant tell wat this poem is about help!!!!!!

First click on "Flat view" and read the responses above (ignore those not related to the poem). If you still don't understand, can you specify what you don't understand? What do you need to do?

And also have a look at the comments in this thread:

<[www.emule.com]>



Post Edited (01-06-05 09:21)

I dont understand the last section of the poem and i need help as its towards my GCSE!!! please help:(

To jis coy mistress is focused on time. THe literary focus is carpe deim (whatever)-- seize the day. He is saying that his lady's coyness is not saving any time and they both are getting older. He says that time is against them and they must "seixe the day." He is pretty much rushing her, for comparison you could look at Robert Herrick and John Suckling. Hope it helps.

lld8706@hotmail.com

I dont understand the last section of the poem

Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapt power
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Through the iron gates of life
Thus though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.


He finishes his plea for a roll in the hay with his coy mistress by outlining exactly what pleasures he would enjoy. Calling himself (like yours truly) a youthful Hugh, he wishes to sit atop her skin and pour his instant fire thereon.

Like a bird of prey, he wishes to devour her, suggesting oral sex, although he admits that his lips are chapped at this particular moment. Rolling the sweetness into one ball, he anticipates Prufrock in T.S. Eliot's poem,

"To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward some overwhelming question"

The rough strife and iron gates clearly indicate he would like a sadomasochistic relationship with the coy mistress (whips and handcuffs), hopefully on the beach where they may also get a quick suntan, at the same time bewailing the fact that all sunblocks way back then seemed to be runny.

You can turn this in exactly as written, since this particular site is unsearchable by GSE administrators.

Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,

--While you are still young and beautiful and full of life


Now let us sport us while we may,

--Let's have fun


And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapt power

--Let's attack time rather than waiting for time to attack us


Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Through the iron gates of life

--by having sex

Thus though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.

--We can't make time stand still, but we can make time work to have to come get us.

Hugh, really!! I don't know how the GCSE examiners would regard your answer, but Dude12's teacher might think you were corrupting minors as s/he is only just 16 at most.