Theme of "Ode on a Grecian Urn", "To His Coy Mistress" and "Porphyria’s Lover"

The theme of To His Coy Mistress is love. The speaker shows his love for his mistress in the beginning of the poem. "I would/Love you ten years before the Flood,/ And you should, if you please, refuse/ Till the conversion of the Jews" (Marvell 831). He also talks about how they will be together forever and remain in love for life. The poem proves this in the end of the poem. It says, "And tear our pleasures with rough strife/ Thorough the iron gates of life" (Marvell 831).

The theme of Ode on a Grecian Urn is love. However, it is not necessarily happy love. "Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss" (Keats 1036). It seems that the two are in love, but to an extent. They seem to be more in love with the chase of each other, but once they are both happy and in love, that trill soon ends.

The theme of Porphyria's Lover is love. Porphyria appears to be in love with the speaker of the poem. She came inside from a storm and sat next to the speaker and confessed her love for him. "From pride, and vainer ties dissever, / And give herself to me for ever" ( Browning 763). The two seemed to have hit it off and Browning makes it seem like they will be together forever. However, the speaker's feelings for Porphyria suddenly change. "In one long yellow string I wound / Three times her little throat around, / And strangled her. No pain felt she" (Browning 764). The speaker continues to be intimate with her corpse because he does still love her.