Ashleigh Schaefer
Professor Dimakos
English 449
5 May 2014
TITLE: Metaphor Use in John Donne’s Poetry
In John Donne’s poem “The Flea” the speaker spends the poem begging a young maiden to have sexual intercourse with him. John Donne’s poem “Holy Sonnet XIV” also revolves around a speaker begging. However, the speaker of “Holy Sonnet XIV” is not begging a young maiden. Instead the speaker is begging God to come into his life and help him overcome sin. Both of these poems relay heavily on themes of sexuality and religion. All though both of the poems deal with these themes “The Flea” has a tone of lightheartedness and playfulness while “Holy Sonnet XIV” has a tone of seriousness and sadness. Passion is also explored in both poems. Sexual passion is explored in “The Flea” and Religious Passion is explored in “Holy Sonnet XIV”. Though one poem is about his relationship with a lady and the other about his relationship with God; John Donne’s “The Flea” and his Holy Sonnet “XIV” both rely heavily on the use of metaphors and imagery in order to convey their message.
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...
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... take on two completely opposite meanings. Ravish and enthrall can either mean to be overcome by force or by overwhelming feelings of happiness. At the end of the sonnet we get an idea of what a relationship with God truly means for a speaker. God is everything that the speaker compares him to throughout this poem. God is powerful, violent, and strong. God can also be compassionate, loving, and forgiving. By the end of the poem the speaker understands that it is possible for God to be all of these seemingly contradictive things. A true relationship with God can only occur when everything in your worldly life is destroyed then built back up with your faith. Only once everything that chains you to worldly desires is destroyed can you truly understand and experience God’s love.
WHAT DOES THIS POEM SAY ABOUT HIS VIEW ON RELIGON AND WHAT HE NEEDS? EXTENDED RELATIONSHIP
Our second poem displays the lost meaning of religion, confusion of love and how our misinterpretations on both lead us to think. Take for instance this line: “No way is [he] bringing me home. He wants someone to fix his religion.” Humans constantly want another human to give meaning to their lives in any kind of way. Some even go as far as interpreting sex and one night stands as actions of sincere love. Our secondary character is trying to find meaning in his religion once more, probably thinking if he finds someone to have sex with, eventually they’ll fall in love and it’ll give his life meaning again, ultimately “fixing” his religion. The character’s self-doubt about his religion and his actions to recuperate that meaning displays the lost meaning of religion. The line “Believe me I love religion, but he’s too quiet when praying” shows the lack of knowledge in America when talking about religion. Praying is a sacred time for people to talk to God and be thankful for them or to ask for guidance. Stating that “he’s too quiet when praying” shows a kind of lost in the meaning of religion, as it’s not a thing that’s enforced as much as it was decades
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.
...ery interesting debate, because those word choices that are used for enthrall and ravish can also mean powerful feeling of astonishment and joy. However we do know that God is powerful and mighty and he can even be violent when it is needed an example of the violence would be the flood of Noah’s time.
At the threat of demise, the speaker states “This flea is you and I, and this/Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is” (12-13). A union is created and through the three of them, it is seen as a correlation to the holy trinity with God being replaced by the flea. Even though the woman does not seem inclined to spare the flea, Donne furthers his argument with the mixing of their blood allowing for an unmistakable union without societal norms or scandal. Since the flea can hop from one host to the other without commitment, so can we have a little romp in the hay without the pressures of marriage and life ever after. Through the third stanza, we find that the woman has killed the flea and therefore quelled any chance of a sexual union between the speaker and his quarry. He has failed once again to gain her favor and seal the deal. While the flea may have been able to take her blood without seduction, the speaker finds excitement in the challenge to live and woo another day.
Donne, John. “Holy Sonnet 5, Holy Sonnet 6, Holy Sonnet 10.” John Donne’s Poetry: A Norton Critical Edition. Ed. Donald R. Dickson. W.W. Norton & Company. New York, London. 2004. (Handout)
The sonnet opens with a seemingly joyous and innocent tribute to the young friend who is vital to the poet's emotional well being. However, the poet quickly establishes the negative aspect of his dependence on his beloved, and the complimentary metaphor that the friend is food for his soul decays into ugly imagery of the poet alternating between starving and gorging himself on that food. The poet is disgusted and frightened by his dependence on the young friend. He is consumed by guilt over his passion. Words with implicit sexual meanings permeate the sonnet -- "enjoyer", "treasure", "pursuing", "possessing", "had" -- as do allusions to five of the seven "deadly" sins -- avarice (4), gluttony (9, 14), pride (5), lust (12), and envy (6).
Holy Sonnet XV deals with the question of reciprocal love that runs throughout Donne’s religious poetry. The Sonnet is an address of the speaker’s mind to the speaker’s soul; it is a meditation on the Trinity and man’s relationship to God. The poem’s form and the multi-layered conflation throughout expound upon the nature of the Trinity. The theme of humility in reciprocal religious love or receiving and understanding God’s glory (as Donne understood it) runs throughout the poem. This allows the speaker’s soul to understand his own need for humility in order to love god fully. Donne uses the Sonnet form cunningly in this poem; the formal divisions of the Sonnet reflect the trinity, with three four-line sections, while the inner workings of the poem expound upon God’s love for mankind and the need for humility. The poem’s rhyme scheme is abba/abba/cddc/ee. This formally divides the poem into three four part sections that move from the spiritual to the physical downward through the Trinity, increasing tangibility with regard to the physical and allowing the speaker to achieve a closer relationship with God through Christ.
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."
John Donne uses poetry to explore his own identity, express his feelings, and most of all, he uses it to deal with the personal experiences occurring in his life. Donne's poetry is a confrontation or struggle to find a place in this world, or rather, a role to play in a society from which he often finds himself detached or withdrawn. This essay will discuss Donne's states of mind, his views on love, women, religion, his relationship with God; and finally how the use of poetic form plays a part in his exploration for an identity and salvation.
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...
The Flea and To His Coy Mistress are two poems written by poets living during the Renaissance Period. To His Coy Mistress was written by Andrew Marvell and The Flea was written by John Donne. Both of these poets were well-educated 'metaphysical poets', and these poems illustrate metaphysical concerns, highly abstract and theoretical ideas, that the poets would have been interested in. Both poems are based around the same idea of trying to reason with a 'mistress' as to why they should give up their virginity to the poet.
It is quite feasible to state that poetry at its finest is a dazzling and expressive art of words. A poem not only can expose the diplomatic beliefs of societies, but can also articulate passions and sentiments of the author to whom the poem belongs. One of the many fine poems that have been prevalent among the study of literature that is irrefutably powerful is Meditation 17 by John Donne. This poetic essay exposes John Donne’s opinions and beliefs on humanity, and covers much cogitation from religion all the way to death. Of course, the poem has been written so profoundly that one may not grasp it completely at first glimpse, however John Donne does use explicit strategies to better convey his message to readers of all sorts. John Donne utilizes situation, structure, language, and musical devices to enhance the poem and to aid in delivering his message efficiently.
In sonnet 1, the speaker is talking to God. He tells God that his death is near. He feels that with all of the sins he has committed he is leaning towards hell instead of heaven. Satan has tempted him too much and he doesn't know if he can even go an hour without giving in to Satan's evil ways. The speaker asks God to give him wings so that he may ascend into heaven and prevent Satan from taking him to hell. There is a sense of manipulation in the speaker in the beginning of the sonnet. "Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?'; In other words, "You're making your own creation look bad if you don't help me to become holy again.'; This starts out the sonnet with a bitter tone, a favorable way for Donne to begin. But in the end, the speaker is pleading God to give him wings, ending the sonnet with a sense of desperation. The worried tone of the last few lines is a rather common one in the Holy Sonnets. It exhibits the r...
Sonnets have existed as a change of pace and challenge for writers since their first appearance during the Renaissance. Unlike many other forms of poetry and prose, sonnets function with a specific formula. With strict rules about the amount of lines, and the need for complete adherence to specific patterns, it is no surprise that it takes a skilled writer to create an enjoyable and structurally correct sonnet. While there is no straying from the path in the actual building blocks of sonnets, the content is a different story. Since sonnets often have the theme of romantic love, differences between them show through the unique relationships between the lovers. Specifically, in the sonnets of Shakespeare, Spenser, and Pollitt, we see a happy relationship, one full of recognized
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.