This poem uses many examples of imagery, allusion, and metaphors to emphasize .
In line seven, the poet makes a reference to loving is mistress ten years before the flood. This could be an allusion to the great flood that Noah's Ark survived. He also mentions that he will love her until the conversion of the Jews, and by saying this he is implying that that will be forever. He says also that his vegetable love will grow vaster than empires, this metaphor, in which he compares his love to a growing vegetable, also serves to show how much he loves his mistress.
At the start of line twenty-five the poem stops making nice imagery and allusions, and turns to a more dark somber piece. The poet talks a lot about solitude and death. He still is using imagery, such as the iron gates of life, and sits on thy skin like morning dew, but they do not have the same joyfulness as the first half of the poem. They all pertain to death and his mistress being the one who is dead. It seems as if the poet is not incredibly upset though, he just sees it as it is. Which happens to be him being alone without his mistress. .
The poems shift form light-hearted to dark and dreary gives the reader a better understanding of how the poet might feel at this time. Since he talks about being happy and loving his mistress forever, one would expect the second half to be the same. Clearly this is not the case. In fact the darkness of the second half comes as quite a shock, and makes the reader stop for a minute and think about the poet's feelings. It makes one feel quite sad for this poet who loved his mistress so much and now can only speak of her in death. It is a powerful piece of literature that makes one appreciate love in the wake of the poet's sadness. .
