A Poet’s Guide to Elaborate Flirtation During the sixteenth century, one would imagine that most literary pieces would be prudent and refined. Free of explicit, unsavory details pertaining to any garish or ungodly acts, such as premarital sex. Though this perception can be argued, it is understandably derived from the political and religious state of Britain at the time. There was a general avoidance of discussing concepts or partaking in anything of a sexual nature, many believing it was a mortal sin outside the bonds of marriage. However, considering this era in Britain was also that of much change and exploration, creatives started to reflect this new spirit in their art. One such work of art that portrays this is “The Flea”, by John …show more content…
Yet, a more in depth look at the poem reveals that this suitor is actually arguing a point to his prospective partner. With the use of conceit, the suitor begins his argument by condemning the act of intercourse, comparing it to sin outside a martial bond. He disparages the act further by claiming that it cannot hold tremendous importance if the same effects can be achieved within the flea’s body. This is exemplified in the following lines “And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;/ Thou know’st that this cannot be said/ A sin, or shame, or loss of maidenhead” (Lines 4-6). With the use of this technique, Donne is able to convey the general perception of premarital sex, in that it is a sin and signifies the loss of innocence, to begin his attempt at persuading his prospective lover. By comparing it to its unlikely foil, the flea that holds their blood, he essentially makes a case that the act itself is essentially …show more content…
Similarly, when his potential lover refuses the idea that their bond lies within a flea, she literally crushes the suitor’s metaphor by killing it. The suitor then states that her killing the flea was equivalent to the smiting of their bond and her innocence. This can be seen in the following example, “Cruel and sudden, hast thou since/ Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?” (Line 19-20). So, in a strange turn of events, the lady who denied the suitor’s attempts to enact intimacy, has now lost her virginity and innocence by killing “their sacred bond”, or the flea. The use of metaphor in this poem is used in such a way that not only carries the narrative but also creates vivid imagery for the audience. When the flea is deemed the vessel of the bond between the suitor and lady, the pesky bug is almost given a badge of honor and importance, which is not usually bestowed upon it. One could say this makes it all the more crushing, pun intended, when the flea is killed, as if loved itself has died within the small belly of a bug. To counter, by being witness to the gaudiness of each metaphor, one can assume the eccentric nature of the suitor himself, divulging details of his character qualities. With Donne’s expert use of metaphor, maintains artistic attributes while providing the reader with multi-layered material to
The imagery in this passage helps turn the tone of the poem from victimization to anger. In addition to fire images, the overall language is completely stripped down to bare ugliness. In previous lines, the sordidness has been intermixed with cheerful euphemisms: the agonizing work is an "exquisite dance" (24); the trembling hands are "white gulls" (22); the cough is "gay" (25). But in these later lines, all aesthetically pleasing terms vanish, leaving "sweet and …blood" (85), "naked… [and]…bony children" (89), and a "skeleton body" (95).
The narrator in The Flea is a youthful man trying to convince a young woman to give her virginity to him. He tries to do this by comparing their relationship to a flea that is in the room. The flea bites them both and Donne explains to her that this is symbolic of both of their worlds combining into one. He says that the flea is now the realm of love, lust, and marriage. At first this poem seems to be just about love, commitment from a male to a female, who says no his lustful desires. However, a deeper look than just the superficial reveals that the male in this poem is actually revealing a valid point to his lady: that the loss of innocence, such as her virginity, does not constitute a loss of her honor.
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.
He is suggesting that they are united in this flea and ,thus, would equally be united in intimacy. In addition, he states, "This flea is you and I, and this our marriage bed, and marriage temple is." The speaker is suggesting that through the flea the two are married. Again, the flea represents marriage, union, and consummation through intimacy. However, the woman crushes the flea, thus, refusing his request, and states that neither she nor he is weakened by its death.
John Donne an English metaphysical poet and 16th century preacher made his name through his poems on love and his technique of creating opposing imagery through allegory and language (Ribes, 2007). Once Donne renounced his catholic faith and made a commitment to the Church of England in 1615, he wrote a series of religious poems, hymns, and sermons (Hodgson, 1999). The most well-known of his religious poetry is a series of nineteen Holy Sonnets spanning over the early 16th century, the most famous of these is Holy Sonnet XIV also known as ‘Batter My Heart’. Holy Sonnet XIV’s prominence in modern literature is due to the debate surrounding the intended meaning of the poem and the parallel the writer draws between the act of religious enlightenment and the pleasure derived from sexual activity. The Cambridge Companion to John Donne describes the poem as “best known literary text in English that figures spiritual redemption as a purifying sexual act” (Gibbory, 2006). This essay will link in to the description given by The Cambridge Companion and will apply a feminist reading by drawing on the writing of Judith Butler, Helene Cixous, and Sigmund Freud the theorised reading will be achieved by firstly examining the dominant or received reading of the for-mentioned poem.
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...
First of all, the situation created by Donne is remarkable. Although there is only one speaker in "The Flea," the poem itself reveals a profound interaction between speaker and audience. Here is an example: "Mark but this flea, and mark in this," (line 1) and "Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare," (line 10). In line one, the poet asked his coy mistress to notice a flea and explain that the flea symbolized the combination of their love. Whereas, when the poem goes on to the first line of the second stanza, the lady ignores Donne's enthusiasm by intending to slay the flea. From the two lines, it shows the female's emotional reaction to Donne's persuasion, which provokes his urge by applying poetic device in the poem.
Although Raleigh’s title does not describe the nymph, her reply is an exercise in freedom to think for herself and express her own values. Marlowe 's poem offers no evidence that his “love” is a nymph; however, Raleigh makes the speaker a nymph who playfully mocks the shepherd’s request. Raleigh clarifies this intention by using six stanzas of four lines and the same iambic tetrameter used by Marlowe. The nymph 's choice to mirror the shepherd 's structure indicates that her “reply” is a systematic deconstruction of his argument. Mockingly, she concedes, “if all the world and love were young and truth in every shepherd’s tongue,” then she would “live with thee and be thy love”; in other words, the nymph playfully suggests that these propositions are not true. By using the same rhythm and turning the shepherd 's requests back upon themselves, the nymph echoes the shepherd 's
In the first stanza, the speaker wants his beloved lady to observe a flea and not think of anything else as he delivers his argument. A flea bites the speaker and his beloved causing their blood to mix, which, according to the narrator, is the same as having sex and creating a child. Then, the speaker explains to the woman that this mixing of blood is neither sinful nor shameful, or a loss of the woman’s “maidenhead.” He also explains that they have conceived a child a through the mixing of blood in the flea. He starts this stanza with a caesura in the middle of the line. For example the first line, “Mark but this flea, and mark in this,” has a definite pause between the words “flea” and “and.” The speaker pauses because he is trying to form some kind logic out of his argument for himself. The oratorical tone of the poem is interwoven throughout all three stanzas with run-on lines, which makes the tempo of the poem seem as if the speaker was not trying to rhyme. Not having a conversational tone in the poem, would take away from some of the intimacy of the words.
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
In his first argument, the speaker attempts to persuade the woman that making love with him will be as insignificant as the flea’s bite that has taken blood from them. He begins by stating the sex that “thou deniest me” (Donne 2) means nothing, just like the flea’s bite. The bite remains a small mark on her body: the mark on her conscience from having sex
He encourages her to give in to his demand by making the act seem trivial, insignificant and nothing to be ashamed of. He implies that if their blood can be shared by a flea, why not they share it with each other. A sense of humour is evident as he ridicules the mindsets of sex before marriage being a sin.
In the first stanza of the poem, the speaker develops similarities between the fleabite and lovemaking. The first two lines of the poem, “Mark but this flea, and mark in this, How little that, which thou deny’st me, is;” I interpreted to mean that the woman doesn’t deny the flea access to her body, yet she denies the advancements of the speaker. Next the speaker uses conceit to illustrate the similarities between their lovemaking and the mingling of their blood within the flea. “Me is sucked first, and now sucks the, An in this flea our two bloods mingled be.” The speaker uses this argument to show the woman that the same physical exchange, which t...
Put simply, John Donne’s “The Flea” is about a man trying to convince his love interest to have sexual relations with him by using a flea that has bitten both of them as a metaphor for their relationship. The speaker argues that the flea, which holds both of their bloods, has become the embodiment of their love and its overall sanctity. Donne’s use of the flea as an extended metaphor of their relationship represents a metaphysical conceit that dramatizes the conflict between the woman losing her virginity to the speaker and the far-fetched attempt of the speaker to emphasize the significance of the flea which is being used to represent a sacred bond between the couple.