Bridging the Gap - Eng 306 Week 2

Bridging the Gap

Samantha Keane

ENG/306

March 7, 2016

Catherine Canino

Bridging the Gap

Poetry is a literary form of expressing feelings or ideas. During the 16th and 17th centuries many of the poems had themes surrounding the topics of love and loss. We even see the first female poet during this time, Anne Bradstreet. Her poem “To My Dear and Living Husband” is a beautiful poem Bradstreet wrote about her husband and their love. Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” shows us another side of love, the lustful side. Finally, “The Lady’s Dressing Room” by Jonathon Swift takes a look at love in a comical, sarcastic sort of way. The topic or theme of love can be interpreted differently by the poets as well as the readers, but the differences can also be bridged with a wide variety of poets and their poems on love.

Anne Bradstreet was the first published female poet. She came from a puritan background which was very conservative so it is amazing that she was able to publicly write as a poet and be accepted by her community and poetry readers and writers. “To My Dear and Loving Husband” is a poem about the purest, strongest kind of love. Bradstreet starts off her poem with “If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were loved by wife, then thee.” She is saying that their love and connection is so strong, they are like one, and they are a perfect example of a wife loving her husband. She goes on to say how deep their love and bond is for each other and she could never repay him for their love, ultimately wanting their love to outlive them. This is the romantic, mushy, emotional poetry that can tug on the heart strings. The rhyme scheme here is rhyming couplets, because the lines rhyme in pairs. Besides the theme of love, marriage, religion, and even death are touch on in this twelve line poem.

“To His Coy Mistress” was written by Andrew Marvell. This poem moves away from the romantic love and borders on lust. This poem is written in three stanzas and is about a man and his wishes to seduce a woman. In the first paragraph of the poem, the man talks about how they do not have much time, but if they did he wouldn’t mind her acting “coy”. Instead of rushing to seal the deal, the man suggests he might even woo her more, if time aloud. In the next stanza we find out that they are running