Contrasting Poems, British Literature 12th

Objective: You will differentiate between the treatment of claims and counterclaims within poems about the same subject.

Contrasting Poems: When a reader’s purpose is to compare or contrast two poems, this determines their treatment of the poems. The identification of the similarities and differences in poetic tools and sound elements utilized as well as the tone and mood are the central focus. In analyzing these elements, the theme of the poems become more clear as the reader focuses on details. As a result, the reader can draw their own conclusions after a thorough understanding has been achieved.

For this assignment, you will read Robert Herrick’s “To Anthea, who may Command him Anything” and George Herbert’s “The Pearl” provided below. Both writers lived and wrote in the early 1600s; however, their subjects differed vastly. Here, both men write about love: Herrick’s is for the lovely Anthea and Herbert’s is for God. After you read the poems, you will write an essay of at least three paragraphs to both compare and contrast the poems. Your response should include the following:
an introduction paragraph of at least five sentences that introduces each poem and poet and includes a three-point thesis statement
a body paragraph of at least five sentences that compares and contrasts the language, poetic tools, and themes of the poems
at least one specific example from each poem used to support the thesis
a conclusion that restates the thesis statement and reviews the main points
proper use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure
“To Anthea, who may Command him Anything”
By Robert Herrick

Bid me to live, and I will live
Thy protestant to be;
Or bid me love, and I will give
A loving heart to thee.
A heart as soft, a heart as kind,
A heart as sound and free,
As in the whole world thou canst find,
That heart I’ll give to thee.
Bid that heart stay, and it will stay,
To honour thy decree;
Or bid it languish quite away,
And ‘t shall do so for thee.
Bid me to weep, and I will weep,
While I have eyes to see;
And having none, yet I will keep
A heart to weep for thee.
Bid me despair, and I’ll despair,
Under that cypress tree;
Or bid me die, and I will dare
E’en death, to die for thee.
Thou art my life, my love, my heart,
The very eyes of me;
And hast command of every part,
To live and die for thee.

“The Pearl”
By George Herbert
MATTHEW xiii

I know the ways of learning; both the head
And pipes that feed the press, and make it run;
What reason hath from nature borrowed,
Or of itself, like a good huswife, spun
In laws and policy; what the stars conspire,
What willing nature speaks, what forc’d by fire;
Both th’old discoveries and the new-found seas,
The stock and surplus, cause and history;
All these stand open, or I have the keys:
Yet I love thee.
I know the ways of honour; what maintains
The quick returns of courtesy and wit;
In vies of favours whether party gains
When glory swells the heart and moldeth it
To all expressions both of hand and eye,
Which on the world a true-love-knot may tie,
And bear the bundle wheresoe’er it goes;
How many drams of spirit there must be
To sell my life unto my friends or foes:
Yet I love thee.
I know the ways of pleasure; the sweet strains
The lullings and the relishes of it;
The propositions of hot blood and brains;
What mirth and music mean; what love and wit
Have done these twenty hundred years and more;
I know the projects of unbridled store;
My stuff is flesh, not brass; my senses live,
And grumble oft that they have more in me
Than he that curbs them, being but one to five:
Yet I love thee.
I know all these and have them in my hand;
Therefore not seeled but with open eyes
I fly to thee, and fully understand
Both the main sale and the commodities;
And at what rate and price I have thy love,
With all the circumstances that may move.
Yet through the labyrinths, not my grovelling wit,
But thy silk twist let down from heav’n to me
Did both conduct and teach me how by it
To climb to thee.

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