“The Flea” by John Donne and “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell are both love poems from the 1600s with the shared goal of wooing their respective women . Donne's "The Flea" shows the speaker trying to woo his woman by convincing her that they have technically already had sexual intercourse through a flea. The flea had bitten them both, thus mixing their blood and stimulating the sexual act in his body: this was science's understanding of sex at the time. Instead, Marvell uses time as a tool in his quest for romantic engagement. Time is his weapon to convince his woman that they should share their love with each other now, while they are both young and attractive. Although Donne's approach to persuading the young woman differs significantly from Marvell's, both poems serve the same purpose and attempt to achieve their common goal through the use of personification, language, and form within of the body of poems. The common theme, carpe diem (Latin: seize the day), is the fundamental subject of both poems, as well as their most notable similarity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Personification is a common literary device, which involves giving human characteristics to a non-human entity. This is used in both Donne's and Marvell's poems to create vivid imagery and persuade the reader to embrace the theme of carpe diem to achieve their goal. In Marvell's poem, "To His Coy Mistress", he personifies time in an attempt to woo his lady. He writes lines full of substantive imagery to get his point across to the reader. “But behind me I always feel / the winged chariot of time fast approaching;” is a vivid example of the use of personification in Marvell's poem (506). The quote serves to engage the reader's sense of sound to create a vivid and alluring image. Donne uses the same literary device in his piece, however he chooses to personify a flea, which has bitten both the speaker and his potential lover, rather than time. The following quote is an example: “This flea is you and I, and this/our marriage bed and temple of marriage is;” (Women, 504). By saying that the flea is not only a flea, but also their marriage bed, Donne has actually used personification in his poem as a tool to win his point. While Donne personifies a flea and Marvell personifies time, both manage to successfully use this literary device in their carpe diem poems. The language, or diction, of a poem reveals what is important to the writer and sets the tone and mood of the poem. In Donne's poem, “The Flea,” the writer chose to express his love with a short poem, highlighting exactly what he felt was necessary to move forward with his goal. Marvell's poem is slightly longer, but still short enough to make word choice an important tool to keep in mind. In both poems, the choice of words not only serves to set the tone but also to persuade the reader. An example of this is seen in the first two lines of Donne's poem: "Mark, but this flea, and note in this / How little is that which you deny me"; (504). This is a good example of diction because in the first few lines of the poem, the speaker is already trying to convince the reader that the sexual act is as insignificant in size as a flea. The writer immediately captures the reader's attention and has laid out his argument in just a few words. Marvell looks like it too.