Tuesday, September 23, 2014

I'm having a hard time with metaphors and similes in Marvell's poem, "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love." Any suggestions?

In Andrew Marvell's poem, "The Passionate Shepherd to His
Love," I find metphors, not similes. (Similes compare dissimilar things using "like" or
"as.")


The metaphor compares dissimilar things that share
the same characteristics. The poem is comprised of figurative language, so I don't think
we need to take all of his descriptions literally.


For
instance, in the second stanza, the speaker refers to the birds singing "madrigals"
(songs about love) to the shallow rivers' falls. (This is metaphoric, figurative
language, as birds don't sing madrigals.) In the third stanza, the speaker refers to a
bed of roses. It may be literal, but we often speak of a bed of
roses as something desirable, while if we say "this is no bed of roses," we are saying
things aren't so great. He may simply be telling his sweetheart that life with him will
be wonderful: a metaphor.


Marvell goes on to say that they
will weave wool from their sheep and make her dresses from it (unlikely) and place
buckles on her shoes of purest gold. And he'll make a belt of straw and buds.
Metaphorically, I believe he is saying he will provide all she needs if she will come
and live with him. If they love, the gown and shoes will not
matter. He compares the things of the natural world to things of the real world: a bed,
clothes, etc. He may be comparing the real world to the imaginary world they would
create if they lived together surrounding by nature as the shepherds
do.


These are the metaphors I found. Hope this
helps.

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