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Donne’s Poetry

John Donne (1572–1631) was a poet and scholar who was a near-contemporary of Andrew Marvell. Modern critics frequently link Donne and Marvell together as two of the seventeenth century’s greatest metaphysical poets. Both men developed their poems using complex and often paradoxical conceits. For an interesting comparison, contrast Donne’s poem, “The Sun Rising,” to Marvell’s conceit about the sun in the final couplet of “To His Coy Mistress.”

Jonathan Swift, “A Modest Proposal”

Jonathan Swift’s satirical essay from 1729 modestly proposed that the economically suffering Irish should sell their children as food to the wealthy English. Though Marvell’s poem doesn’t use irony in the same way as Swift’s essay, both works employ the literary device of understatement to great effect.

Saul Bellow, Seize the Day

Saul Bellow’s ironically titled novel gives Marvell’s carpe diem theme a suitably caustic twentieth-century treatment. Much like “To His Coy Mistress,” Seize the Day is characterized by a blend of humor and pathos.

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