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Donne as a metaphysical poet
Explanation of poem the flea by john donne
Explanation of poem the flea by john donne
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The Flea by John Donne utilises wit and conceit to convey his intentions to seduce a woman. Although a love poem, the author does not utilise typical flattery of the opposite sex to convey his intentions. Instead, the author uses wit through a hyperbolic argument in a display of intelligence to convince the silent woman. Donne states, “Marke this flea” to the woman he is trying to seduce. This is Donne’s first conceit for “how little that which thou deny’st me”, a metaphor for virginity. Donne argues that the flea is “our marriage bed” and that in the flea “our two bloods mingled be” underlining the hyperbole of Donne’s wit. This conceit is further underlined when Donne argues “Thou know’st that this cannot be said” suggesting the two bloods
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Donne suggests the flea “enjoys before it woo” disputing the female’s denial of him. The author reaffirms this suggesting that this exchange in blood “alas! Is more than we do”. Donne proceeds to compare the flea, a symbol of their relationship to “our marriage bed”. Donne extends the hyperbolic argument stating “three lives in one flea spare” comparing the killing of the flea to sacrilege in order to prevent the silent woman crushing the flea. This is further underlined when as well as murder and sacrilege, Donne states “let not that self-murder added be”, suicide. Given the absurdity of the argument, the silent woman crushes the flea, however without knowing she has confirmed Donne’s point. Donne’s argument that killing the flea would be sacrilege and suicide reaffirms his original statement that intercourse would not be be “sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead” as when killed. Donne states “when thou yield’st to me, Will waste as this flea ‘s death took from me” thus he reaffirms his previous …show more content…
Qualities of destruction and rebirth are evident in the first quatrain, as the speaker asks that God “Batter my heart”. We hear the suddenness of violence which is followed by strong verbs “knock, breathe, shine” ringing like blows of a hammer as Donne an impure metal yearns to be reshaped by God. Although Donne longs to be rescued from his sinfulness, he knows himself that minor inducements cannot cause spiritual reformation. Instead Donne’s use of strong language indicates his desperation for God’s force to “break, blow, burn and make me new again”, a conceit for what will destroy and cause his rebirth. The repeated use of three consecutive verbs allows the reader to hear the nature of the Holy Trinity. The initial sense of violence from the first quatrain is undercut by the speaker’s apologetic tone as he is unable to resist sin. The speaker refers to himself as “an usurped town to another due” as suggestion of his soul has been captured and that although the speaker may “may labour admit you” it is to “no end”. The image of the besieged further flows through the sonnet as it further demonstrates the state of the author. The desperation of Donne can be heard by the as the author begs that God “Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend”. The viceroy is reference to the speaker’s rationality and intelligence that should save him, although does not, due to its feeble nature to give into
In the poem “The Flea” by John Donne, the speaker uses clever sexual innuendo and metaphors in an attempt to manipulate a certain girl into losing her virginity to him. The poem begins with the speaker explaining that a flea has bit both him and her, and now both of their blood mixes inside it. He continues to try and ...
During the 17th century, certain poets wrote poems with the specific purpose of persuading a woman to have sexual intercourse with them. Three of these seduction poems utilize several strategies to do this: Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress,” and Donne’s “A Valediction: Forbidden Mourning” and “The Flea.” Some of the reasoning used by both poets is similar to the reasoning used today by men to convince women to have sexual intercourse with them. These gimmicks vary from poem to poem but coincide with modern day rationalization. The tactics used in 17th century seduction poems are relevant and similar to the seduction tactics used in the 21st century.
In poetic terms, “wit” means the development of a metaphysical conceit. It is an insightful use of analogy, metaphor or inventive joining of dissimilar images to make a point in a poem. In these regards, this play has been appropriately titled. John Donne, whose Holy Sonnets make numerous appearances in the play, uses his metaphysical poetry to spark unrest, debate, and controversy. He himself wrestles with questions about faith, God’s mercy and judgment, human mortality, sin, damnation, absolution, and salvation. The Holy Sonnets are the product of doubter, one who has not yet found inner peace. This realization i...
John Donne's, "The Flea," is a persuasive poem in which the speaker is attempting to establish a sexual union with his significant other. However, based on the woman's rejection, the speaker twists his argument, making that which he requests seem insignificant. John Donne brings out and shapes this meaning through his collaborative use of conceit, rhythm, and rhyme scheme. In the beginning, Donne uses the flea as a conceit, to represent a sexual union with his significant other. For instance, in the first stanza a flea bites the speaker and woman. He responds to this incident by saying, "And in this flea our bloods mingled be."
The two poems The Flea and The Sunne Rising capture John Donne’s primary motive to get in bed with women. Donne wrote these poems at an early age, and at that time he was seeking nothing more than a sexual relationship. His poetry depicted clearly how sexist he was at the time and how he used to perceive women as a medium of pleasure. The content of his early poems express an immature and desperate image of Donne, who is dominated by his fixation on the sensuality of women. In The Flea, Donne shows his desperation to have sex by addressing a flea that has sucked the blood of both him and the woman he is persuading. It is quite awkward how the poet uses this obscure image of the flea as a symbol of love and sex to convince the woman that...
There is a similar theme running through both of the poems, in which both mistresses are refusing to partake in sexual intercourse with both of the poets. The way in which both poets present their argument is quite different as Marvell is writing from a perspective from which he is depicting his mistress as being 'coy', and essentially, mean, in refusing him sex, and Donne is comparing the blood lost by a flea bite to the blood that would be united during sex. Marvell immediately makes clear his thoughts in the poem when he says, "Had we but world enough, and time/ This coyness, Lady were no crime", he is conveying the 'carpe diem' idea that there is not enough time for her to be 'coy' and refuse him sexual intercourse and he justifies this thought when he suggests when she is dead, in ?thy marble vault?, and ?worms shall try that long preserved virginity?. He is using the idea of worms crawling all over and in her corpse as a way of saying that the worms are going to take her virginity if she waits until death. Donne justifies his bid for her virginity in a much longer and more methodical way, he uses the idea of the flea taking her blood and mixing it with his, ?It suck?d me first, and now sucks thee?, and then...
as Donne dares to think Death to be weak and feeble. The poet is so
John Donne is known as being one of the most famous and influential metaphysical poets. The term “metaphysical," as applied to English and continental European poets of the seventeenth century, was used by Augustan poets John Dryden and Samuel Johnson to reprove those poets for their “unnaturalness.” As Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote, however, “The unnatural, that too is natural," and the metaphysical poets continue to be studied and revered for their intricacy and originality. Due to Donne’s personal experiences with spirituality and love, he is able to grasp the true meaning of metaphysical poetry (Brief Guide to Metaphysical Poets). Using all the aspects of metaphysical poetry, Donne creates a mysterious metaphoric poem titled, “The Flea.” Throughout this poem, the use of metaphors and breaks into the separate stanzas allow for the audiences to understand what The Flea is really about. At first glance, many read The Flea as a poem that compares sexual intimacy with an animal, but when broken down, it can be seen that the meaning is much deeper than intimacy, but it
No poem of John Donne's is more widely read or more directly associated with Donne than the tenth of the Holy Sonnets,"Death, be not proud." Donne's reputation as a morbid preacher was well-known. He had a portrait of himself made while posed in a winding-sheet so that he could contemplate a personalized memento of death. Donne draws upon a popular subject in medieval and Renaissance art, Le roi mort or King Death. His fascination with death reaches another plateau with this poem. He almost welcomes it and denounces the process as being neither horrifying nor the "end-all be-all." In a contextual point of view, he works to rupture habitual thinking and bring attention to the intensity and depth of a situation by creating doubt or offering a new aspect of his subject. Donne takes this poem and pours forth an array of visions that directly connects to the contextualist in a look at death, the pa...
John Donne lived in an era when the lyric was at its pinnacle. Poets were writing well-rounded, almost musical poetry on subjects that ranged from all kinds of love to enchantment with nature. Donne could not help but revolt against this excess of fluency and melody. John Donne's style stands in such sharp contrast to the accepted Elizabethan lyrical style that it becomes difficult to accept the fact that his works date from the same era. To highlight this statement, one has to compare a typical Elizabethan lyric to one of Donne's works.
John Donne’s “The Flea” details the attempts of a lover to convince his partner of the insignificance of physical love through conceit. The desperate lover hopes to woo ahesitant woman to have sex with him because physical love means nothing. Donne utilizes biblical allusions through symbolism and slant rhyme as the speaker builds and rebuilds his crooked case for the unimportance of sex. When the action of the poem shifts, the speaker’s argument shifts accordingly. The flea transforms into a symbol of the conscience that is the main obstacle to the physical love that the speaker seeks. Through the speaker and overstatement, Donne satirically asserts that physical love is not important, mocking a theme of contemporary carpe diem poems.
Although Donne employs iambic meter, where a stressed syllable follows an unstressed syllable, the first line opens with a bang by starting with a heavily stressed first syllable. The use of sonnet form immediately stands out as an another curious aspect of the poem. Poets traditionally wrote sonnets to express one's love for a woman, but in this poem Donne addresses God as his lover. Sonnets also usually changed subject or tone in the ninth line, and here Donne uses this tactic to surprise the reader. In lines seven and eight, Donne describes how he has wondered from God, but in the ninth line he reveals that "Yet dearly I love you" (9). From this point on, John speaks in a more personal tone to God and makes specific requests and pleas. The many poetic devices make the poem flow well and effectively complement its deep
Lines 23 – 27. Donne’s approach to the topic plays an important role in the result in which the poem ends. Instead of being utterly romantic and persuading his lover in a kind and tender way, he is straightforward and not afraid to ask her what he wants. To a certain extent, the metaphor of a flea can be deemed as logical in the sense that if a flea bit them both their blood would have already been shared. In this poem, Donne breaks the barriers of Petrarchan poetry when using metaphysical wit and conceit to portray his feelings, making metaphysical poetry much more interesting and challenging.
John Donne, an English poet and clergyman, was one of the greatest metaphysical poets. His poetry was marked by conceits and lush imagery. The Flea is an excellent example of how he was able to establish a parallel between two very different things. In this poem, the speaker tries to seduce a young woman by comparing the consequences of their lovemaking with those of an insignificant fleabite. He uses the flea as an argument to illustrate that the physical relationship he desires is not in itself a significant event, because a similar union has already taken place within the flea. However, if we look beneath the surface level of the poem, Donne uses the presence of the flea as a comparison to the presence of a baby, thus making the sub textual plot about aborting the baby.
Despite the speaker’s best attempt at convincing the woman to have sexual relations with him through his metaphor of the flea, he would appear to be unsuccessful at the end of the poem. His far-fetched and cynical approach belittles both the woman’s virginity and sexual relations outside of marriage in general, and only highlight his lust for her. However, the poem’s metaphysical characteristics which include the primary use of a conceit through the flea, hyperbole, ironic wit to balance the plot between a serious and humorous nature, and an argumentative structure, allow Donne to create a satirical narrative to address the subject of sexual relations outside of marriage.