A Small Defeat Human desires plague the male mind causing him to go to drastic measures to acquire his wish. John Donne writes his poem “The Flea”, using unlikely symbolism to create an almost humorous, metaphysical love poem. In “The Flea”, the narrator uses the unique symbol of a flea in an attempt to coax his poor mistress to bed. Throughout the entire poem, the flea is symbolic, being compared to acts of marriage, sin, and sex. Overall, Donne depicts a needy lover using a most strange symbol, in his three-part argument, to moralize getting his mistress to sleep with him.
Donne opens his poem immediately building the man’s sex argument, drawing obvious attention to the comparison between sex and this symbolic flea through several examples. In line 1, the narrator dramatically draws attention to his argument: “Mark but this flea, and mark in
…show more content…
At this point, the narrator’s mistress evidently becomes tired of this petty argument. In rebuttal, the author states, “Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare…” (10). Here the author is using the flea to represent the lives of the narrator and his mistress and the flea. The author pleads to spare the flea, sensing her about to smash the flea, and in turn, deny the man’s looming request. Donne then goes on to compare the flea to the couple’s “marriage bed” and “marriage temple” (15). The narrator starts to give the first hints of what he is actually eluding to marriage and mostly sex. In the last few lines of the second section of the poem, the narrator once more pleads for his mistress to spare their three lives. His concluding thought and comparison being of that to death. The narrator takes his symbol one step further saying if you kill this flea then three times the sin, killing us all in one. The narrator sets up his argument for once final shot at his
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.
Donne cares very little about his mistress, evidenced by the lack of her name throughout the poem, which resembles an urgent appeal. Conversely, Herrick's five stanzas and elaborate metrical structure indicate a planned appeal. Donne's lustful and solely physical approach contrasts sharply with Herrick's intellectual ploy in a complimenting and gently rebuking manner. The variance in the approaches of the poets is characteristic of their respective schools of poetic thought and illustrates the differences in approaches to poems of seduction by the metaphysical and cavalier writers.
In the second stanza Donne changes his attitude about the flea, deciding that it what has occurred within it is actually blessed and wonderful. He points out that there are “three lives in one flea,” referring to himself, his lady, and the flea (2.1). Instead of describing the flea...
Donne argues that by spilling his blood and hers by killing the flea, she is practically committing murder. Not only that, but by breaking the holy bond of marriage she is committing sacrilege! However, the flea is killed, and the poet is forced to change tactics. There, he argues, killing the flea was easy, and as you say it hasn't harmed us - well, yielding to me will be just as easy and painless. This poem borrows a lot of religious imagery, because it helps add an absurd authority to the poem, as Donne tries to argue that what they are about to do is not only supported by God, but to not do it would be heretical.
John Donne deliberately makes his metaphysical love poem "The Flea" light-hearted by using humour t...
Donne uses the simple round images to symbolize a deeper meaning coupled with metaphor and paradox to create a complex love poem.
Love and religion are two of the most common topics of poetry, even though many of Donne’s poems are either on love or religion, two different topic, they are connected thru the continuous use of devices such as allusions, metaphors, and puns; providing a bond for each poem yet each for a different context. “The Flea,” “Holy Sonnet VII”, and “A Hymn to God the Father” each have distinct themes, but find common ground by the use of common literary devices.
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...
Donne's approach at alluring the woman is unusual at first glance--it seems as though he is trying too hard to win her over by talking about an insignificant insect such as a flea. A flea is a parasite that spreads infectious diseases in animals. Yet in his poem, the flea sucks his blood and then the woman's blood, and the two are then mixed into one creature and therefore symbolizing their `marriage.' "It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,/ And in this flea our two bloods mingled be" (lines 3-4). The flea symbolizes the harmony between him and his ladylove. Blood is the river of life and the essence of what all humans are made of. To have her blood with his mixed together reaches a depth that Donne never thought of before--he feels a deep affection for her and an underlying oneness with the woman--and because he feels thi...
Donne’s poem is filled with the contradictions he became famous for. Illustrations of love and war, good and evil, captivity and freedom, and spiritual love and carnal love reveal the dual nature of the poem and the challenge in understanding, with certainty, what Donne was trying to convey with such sincerity (Donne, 2005). In the last several lines, Donne reveals the ultimate disparity, saying he could never be chaste unless God ravishes him (Donne 2005). John Donne’s poetry has withstood the test of time and has even inspired other forms of art.
The seventeenth century was an era of beautiful poetry. Two poets in particular, Andrew Marvell and John Donne, wrote carpe diem poetry full of vivid imagery and metaphysical conceits. Each conveyed the message of "living for the now." This message can be clearly seen in the poems "To his Coy Mistress" by Marvell and Donne’s "Flea." By using clever metaphors and meter, the poems not only are symbolic, but have almost a physical aspect to them. Though both poems take a similar approach, it is Marvell that writes the more persuasive one, reaching deep into the soul to win his object of affection.
John Donne’s poem “The Flea” uses the extended metaphor of a flea as a way to support the speaker’s argument as to why a young woman should sleep with him. The speakers main argument is that the flea has bitten both of them resulting in the mixing of their blood together and intercourse between the both of them will be no worse of a sin. “The Flea” relies heavily on a theme of sexuality in order to coax a young woman into sleeping with him. Peter Rudnytsky states that Donne uses the metaphor “as a part of the larger Renaissance vogue for paradoxical encomia-witty praise of objects commonly thought to be worthless or undesirable” (Rudnytsky 188). Donne’s choice to use a wor...
Donne clearly has a high and lofty image of the human female form. Yet this deification is undermined by the lusty, bawdy qualities of the poem. For example, when Donne reaches the conclusion of the poem he does not summarize his mistress' physical beauty, but instead promises sexual adventure. This is seen in the final three lines,
Either way you look at this poem, in the religious or sexual sense, it is powerful and controlling. Donne intertwines sexual connotations with religious renewal and the ridding of sins from the body. He has made sure not to support either reading too fully, leaving both open to speculation.
In conclusion, the true beauty of Donne’s poetry comes through in the tireless search for connections, overlapping, and deeper meaning. As one searches for these meanings, the 27 lines of "The Flea" become a mysterious maze that has no completion and never takes one to a dead end.