I thought the love poems we read in class were very interestingbecause i was able to see how people in the past would express their love to their significant other. I thought a lot of the poems were very clever, and I found it amusing to see the metaphors the poets used. For example, in His Coy Mistress, when the speaker says “my vegetable love should grow,” (line 11) he uses this metaphor to explain that his love would grow to a certain capacity, like how vegetables grow to a certain size over time. I found this, along with many of the other metaphors and ideas in the other poems, very creative and unique, as they are not something you would see very often nowadays or something I would even be able to come up with myself, which made them entertaining to read. However, something I did not enjoy was how the majority of these “love poems” did not really feel like love poems at all. To me It does not feel like love to talk about the girl you like aging and to pressure her into rushing a relationship. I feel like Many of the poems focus on hurrying rather than actual love, and the majority of the time, the reason why they were rushing was not even about wanting more time together, but actually because they are worried that the beauty of the person they supposedly “love” will fade. I found this somewhat misogynistic, and it made a lot of the love poems not feel as genuine. However, I also know that these poems come from a different time period, and beauty standards have always been very integrated into society, so it is not surprising that these ideas would appear in the poems or that this would be a priority to the peple writing them.
I think because of this, I really enjoyed the poem His Coy Mistress to Mr. Marvell. I liked this poem because it was funny to see how the woman kind of fires back at the guy. I enjoyed how the woman in this poem knew her worth and did not just swoon over the man writing a poem for her, and instead actually calls him out for some of the things he said in a funny way. For example, how she said that although she is grateful for the rhyme, she wishes him better luck next time (line 90), and points out that “no woman’s won by being told how quickly she is growing old” (lines 30–36). I really liked this line because she doesn’t dismiss the comment, just because it is hidden inside a poem that praises her and her beauty, and she knows that this doesn’t make the comment any less rude. Instead, she humbles him and calls him out for how ridiculous it is to insult the person you are trying to win over. I liked this moment because I was thinking the same thing while reading it, and it was intersting to to see how someone had had the same thoughts and opinions as me many years ago. I also found the line “slight faults, and ones which I own your sex is generally prone” (lines 11–12) funny because, in a way, it is true. If you look at the majority of these poems, many of the men follow the same pattern. They try to pressure the woman they are writing the poem to by talking about time, aging, and her fading beauty in order to rush her into a relationship. When you look at all of the poems together, you can see that technically she is right in saying that men are prone to doing this.
Overall, I found the love poems interesting because they show different perspectives on love. I found a lot of these poemslike the poem Song sweet, and I could actually see the admiration the poet had for their lover. However, something id idnt enjoy was how a lot of the poems were repetitive and somewhat misogynistic. Despite this, I still found them very amusing and interesting to read!