A Structural and Vocabulary Analysis of John Donne's The Flea

1252 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Critical analysis of Done's poem the flea

A Structural and Vocabulary Analysis of John Donne's "The Flea"

In his poem "The Flea", John Donne shows his mastery in creating a work in which the form and the vocabulary have deliberately overlapping significance. The poem can be analyzed for the prominence of "threes" that form layers of multiple meanings within its three stanzas. In each of the three stanzas, key words can be examined to show (through the use of the OED) how Donne brilliantly chose them because of the various connotations they had to his audience. Finally, each of the three stanzas contains completely different moods that reflect the speaker’s emotions as the situation changes.

Upon knowing some of John Donne’s personal history, especially of his eventual high position in the church, it is no surprise that religious overtones embellish much of his erotic poetry. The Holy Trinity is the body created by three entities: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. "The Flea" shows Donne’s obsession with this divine number and can be examined as a series of several "threes" beginning with the total number of stanzas in the poem: 3. Each stanza contains 9 lines, making the poem a series of 3 stanzas containing each a total of lines equaling 3-squared. As for the total number of lines, the poem contains 3-cubed, or 27. Each stanza contains the rhyme scheme AABBCCDDD. This is also a series of threes, containing 3 sets of rhyming couplets and ending in three lines rhyming DDD.

The word "flea" is mentioned in all three stanzas of the poem. The OED had many entries for the word proving that Donne chose a word with its own trinity of multiple meanings, as a noun, an adjective, and a verb. First, it is a noun meaning the small, black, bloodsucking insect. This is ...

... middle of paper ...

...ll of the speaker’s hopes are prematurely executed in the third stanza when the lady crushes the flea between her nails. This stanza is anticlimactic because the eager hopping around from argument to argument abruptly comes to a halt with one action. The speaker is rejected, and immediately retreats from his pursuit. His tone becomes scathing and the overall mood becomes like the purple blood that has stained the lady’s nail: "a hue of mourning." The hopes of the speaker coil down from the high apex of hope that builds in the first two stanzas to an embarrassing low in the last stanza.

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.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis of Flea by John Donne

    426 Words  | 1 Pages

    John Donne?s poem connects flesh and spirit, worldly and religious ideas in a fascinating way between seemingly unrelated topics. He compares sexual intercourse to a bite of a flea and says that now their blood has mixed inside the flea. He also compares the inside of the tiny flea to the entire world, including the couple.

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of Marilyn Dumont's 'When You Walk Through My Door'

    1064 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first stanza describes the depth of despair that the speaker is feeling, without further explanation on its causes. The short length of the lines add a sense of incompleteness and hesitance the speaker feels towards his/ her emotions. This is successful in sparking the interest of the readers, as it makes the readers wonder about the events that lead to these emotions. The second and third stanza describe the agony the speaker is in, and the long lines work to add a sense of longing and the outpouring emotion the speaker is struggling with. The last stanza, again structured with short lines, finally reveals the speaker 's innermost desire to "make love" to the person the speaker is in love

    Read More

  • Literary Uses Of Seduction In Donne's As 'The Flea'

    1496 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Explication of John Donne's The Flea

    406 Words  | 1 Pages

    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."

    Read More

  • The Flea and The Sun Rising

    1643 Words  | 4 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Comparison of how The Flea and To His Coy Mistress Present and Develop the Poets' Arguments

    2016 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Analysis of e.e. cummings' since feeling is first

    1084 Words  | 3 Pages

    The poem says that "since feeling is first" (line 1) the one who pays attention to the meaning of things will never truly embrace. The poem states that it is better to be a fool, or to live by emotions while one is young. The narrator declares that his "blood approves" (line 7) showing that his heart approves of living by feeling, and that the fate of feeling enjoyment is better than one of "wisdom" (line 9) or learning. He tells his "lady" (line 10) not to cry, showing that he is speaking to her. He believes that she can make him feel better than anything he could think of, because her "eyelids" (line 12) say that they are "for each other" (line 13). Then, after all she's said and thought, his "lady" forgets the seriousness of thought and leans into the narrator's arms because life is not a "paragraph" (line 15), meaning that life is brief. The last line in the poem is a statement which means that death is no small thi...

    Read More

  • Compare the ways in which Donne presents the experience of love in ‘The Sun Rising’ and ‘The Good Morrow’

    1602 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...ne exclusively on himself and his lover. By doing so he says the sun will be shining on the entire world. It is apparent in both poems the tone and language is dramatic, as this is typical of Donne’s writing style. His use of imagery and symbolism effectively present his experience of love. However it is the structure that builds up the emotion throughout the poems as Donne starts in each poem to refer to a seductive love, then in conclusion realises the importance of true love. ‘The Good Morrow’ clearly shows evidence of this when at the beginning Donne states he ‘suck’d on country pleasures childishly’ and in the end understands that a ‘Love so alike that none can slacken, none can die’.

    Read More

  • Metaphysical Poetry In John Donne's The Flea

    1144 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • John Donne Vs. The Elizabethan Lyric

    1572 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Theme Of Physical Love In John Donne's The Flea

    1026 Words  | 3 Pages

    Donne develops this idea through the symbolism of the flea and the twisted imagery of the Trinity. He uses slant rhyme to depict the man’s slanted argument and stretched logic, which highlight the man’s crooked idea of what physical love is. Donne’s use of slant rhyme and hyperbole mock other poems that praise women with flowery language in an attempt to charm them into bed. In contrast, the speaker here uses crude arguments meant to woo this woman to sex with him.Renaissance carpe diem poems speak about enjoying physical love within one’s short-lived youth. “The Flea” touches on fleeting love too; the body with the blood of life and love may soon be squished. However, there are consequences which always entail physical love. These consequences might be the real

    Read More

  • Batter My Heart, Three-Personed God Tone

    710 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Metaphysical Poetry in The Seventeenth Century

    885 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Use of Conceit in The Flea, by John Donne

    1046 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Replacing Textbooks with Tablets

    1009 Words  | 3 Pages

    As more people began to access the Internet through smart phones and tablets rather than laptops and computers, it is not a surprise that they would also want to transform the American education system by bringing tablets into classrooms. In fact, a few schools around the country have already replaced textbooks with tablets and have seen improvements in students’ standardized test scores. Using tablets instead of textbooks is not only convenient and helpful, but it can also reduce the amount of paper wastes in school. However, it is not a good idea to completely transform textbooks with tablets with the current technology, for it can not only be damaging to the environment and costly to set up, but also might not be effective in improving K-12 education in the long run.

    Read More

More about A Structural and Vocabulary Analysis of John Donne's The Flea

Open Document