True Love vs. Physical Love

“The Guilded Six-Bits,” “I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed,” and “To His Coy Mistress” all have the theme of the role of men and women in a relationship. In each relationship there is love, but also something else that may be beyond love or hindering it. The love may be true among the couple, or physical, it varies among the pairs of lovers.
In “The Guilded Six-Bits” we see that Missy May and Joe, husband and wife, love each other very much. By the way they talk to each other and the way they act it is clearly depicted that their love for each other is very strong. However, a man comes to town, Otis Slemmons. He is thought to have a lot of money, gold money, at a time that many of the African-American population did not have much money. Missy May becomes attracted to Slemmons because of his money and leads her to have an affair. Because of her love for Joe she has no desire to leave him, which is somewhat confirmed when she realizes that Slemmons is a fake. Throughout it all Joe stays with Missy May and their love holds them together in the end.
In “To His Coy Mistress” the speaker tells his love about how the world does not provide unlimited amounts of time, and that he wants to take as much advantage of the time that he has as possible. As most women of this era, his mistress is quite “coy” or shy with him. He tries to persuade her to take advantage of life and give up her virginity to him. His love for her seems quite physical, because of his persuasiveness to try to get her to lose her virginity to him. He keeps telling her that life will not wait for them, so they should enjoy themselves together while they have the chance.
“I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed” has a similar theme to “To His Coy Mistress” but it is from a woman’s point of view. The speaker has a man who wants to have sex with her, and is trying very hard to persuade her. Like the first poem the love between two people is more out of lust, rather than love.
All three works have men and women and their relationships with one another. In “The Guilded Six-Bits” the love of the married couple is sincere, even though the wife’s love of money puts a damper to it. In “To His Coy Mistress” the speaker wants his mistress to lose her virginity to him and is trying to persuade her with thoughts of the world not providing as much time as they would like. “I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed” has a woman suffering from the demands of pleasing a man. Whether love is true or physical, we see that it is prevalent in all societies and has been since the beginning of time.