OED Essay: I will argue that Marvell is, instead, using two very distinct definitions of quaint. Firstly, Marvell uses quaint to describe objects and concepts that seem beautiful and eternal, yet are actually superfluous and impermanent. Secondly, Marvell employs a bawdy joke with his use of quaint, adding a layer of playfulness to an otherwise morbid stanza. His vulgar joke, however, also emphasizes the explicit imagery of the stanza, making his argument all the more powerful. These two definitions reflect a tension central to the poem—the tension between the eternal and the profane.
Poetry Comparison Essay: Both Keats and Plath describe what they fear as a negative space; for Keats, this negative is death, while for Plath, this negative is life.
Metrical Analysis: Milton registers the monotony in hell in part by keeping his iambic pentameter very regular, to the point of tedium. Milton also communicates the alienating paradoxes of Hell by deploying caesuras and enjambments as the recognizable becomes abnormal. Hell becomes not just a fiery wasteland, but also an inverted Heaven foot-by-foot and pause-by-pause.
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