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There are several similarities and differences in William Shakespeare s My Mistress Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun, and John Donne s A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning. Theses two poems discuss and dissect relationships on two basic levels: one level deals with love, and the other level makes strong references to lust. Both possess merit in respect for the time they were written and the style of world that we live in today.

In John Donne s A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, it is obvious that the man in this poem is madly in love with his women and feels a strong sexual bond with her when he writes So let us melt, and make no noise (Kirszner & Mandel 816). This line in the poem suggests that the man does not wish to share his women with anyone. He wants the two of them to connect or form one body in peace. Let nothing be in their way of their love making. These two could be married.

In William Shakespeare s My Mistress Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun, it could be argued that the speaker in the poem loves his mistress but is not in love with who she is as opposed to Donne s Valediction. Shakespeare writes Coral is far more red than her lips red (Kirszner & Mandel 684). This suggests that the speaker feels nothing more than the physical side of romance for the woman in the poem. Coral is very abrasive, yet pretty, but still has a negative connotation to the reader. Coral is only found in saltwater and is mainly used as a source of food or rest for traveling fish, scavenging crabs, and a meeting ground for reproduction. Coral reefs are usually beautifully intricate pieces of bright reddish rock…especially so when close to the surface of the water. The sun rays bounce off of and through the reefs as to compare this action as to an underwater party. Shakespeare has an luminescent, underwater truck stop on his hands. This women is expendable because she is not the woman of the speakers dreams and is probably everything he does NOT want in a relationship.

Donne reveals how not only he feels for his women sexually, but passionately as well when he writes But we, by a love so much refined that ourselves know not what it is (Kirszner & Mandel 817). This portion of the poems depicts a willingness for a lasting body and soul. Their relationship is so finely tuned and deep enough for only each other to breath in. Still, there is mystery around every corner because he said that even they do not fully understand it.

The reason why Shakespeare considers this women to be someone whom the speaker finds unworthy of his eternal self and mearly an object of desire is stated when he writes I love to hear her speak, yet well I know that music hath a far more pleasing sound (Kirszner & Mandell 685). This humorous, almost malicious stanza captures just about all the speaker feels for his lover. He likes her, or at least likes her sexually enough to tolerate her voice, but he would not want to hang around for to long. The speaker finds her appealing enough to get his sexual fix and then probably leaves.

Shakespeare also writes My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground (Kirszner & Mandel 685). That is not something to say to a companion or lover. Throughout the poem, Shakespeare basically tells the reader how lousy of a person the speaker s lover is. The very first line in the poem is spent comparing his mistress to darkness. It is almost like the speaker is settling for this woman, and, to himself, awaits another lover or, more so, a true heaven sent mate.

From loose lust to lasting love, Donne writes Our two souls, therfore, which are one, though I must go…like gold to airy thinness beat (Kirszner & Mandell 817). This man is about to depart his women for an indefinite time and he does not want to leave her. He is so attached to her that he feels that he is making their one, or unity, into two pieces. Although he leaves her, it is not in vein. Donne writes If they be two, they are two so as stiff twin compasses are two (Kirszner & Mandell 817). He makes it very evident to his women for as long as they are apart they are still undivided. A compass has two separate appendages, but it is still one instrument. That is how he explains it to his woman. No matter how long of a distance or expansion there is between them, they stay connected through their own truth, endurance, and love for each other.

Each of these poems has similarities as well as contrasting views. Both poems involve relationships between the opposite sex, but Shakespeare finds loss of love in lust as Donne seeks the greatest love of all: lasting relationship.

Work Cited

Kirszner, Laurie G., Stephen R. Mandell. Literature: Reading, Writing, Reacting. New York: Hartcourt, 2001.