Marvell, on the other hand, uses metaphors in his poem to create a rather different effect. He mentions that his mistress’ beauty cannot be found “in [her] marble vault”. (26) The marble fault is a metaphor for his mistress’ final resting place, her cemetery. He then proceeds to compare their bodies of making love to each other as “roll our strength into one ball” (42, 43) as well as the finite time of our days on earth as the “iron gates of life” (44). Unlike Shakespeare, the effect created by these various metaphors neither sets up the comparisons nor creates space for readers to imagine. Instead, it simply paints a livelier picture of the scenes portrayed in the poem. Marvell uses metaphors to illustrate that death is not grand at all.
