Comparative Analysis of "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" by William Shakespeare and The Flea by John Donne
'Shall I compare thee' by Shakespeare focuses on romantic love,
whereas Donne's poem, 'The Flea' is all about seduction and sexual
love.
The situations in the two poems are very different. In 'Shall I
compare thee', the poet is shown as a lover who is addressing his
lady. His tone is gentle and romantic. He starts with a rhetorical
question to which he must answer and therefore he does not put demand
upon the lady. The poem gives the impression that it is set perhaps in
his room, where he is composing his poem. One thing is for sure and
that is that the woman he is addressing is not with him, because all
the way through the poem, there is no response from her. Shakespeare
wants to emphasize her beauty.
In 'The Flea' the poet is directly appealing to the woman or his
mistress. They seem to be in bed together with a flea, but no sex
seems to have taken place. If it had, then the situation would be very
different. The poet has seduced her as far as the bedroom and at this
point, it seems as though he is going to try a new strategy. The woman
does not appear to be very keen and is resisting his advances.
Compared with Donne's poem, in 'Shall I compare thee' the poet is
simply flattering the woman and wants her to like him. It is also
one-sided, unlike in 'The Flea' where the woman gives her views as
well. 'Shall I compare thee' is similar to 'First Love' by John Clare
in this way. In 'First Love', only the poet's views are shown and
therefore it is also one-sided. In 'The Flea' the poet's aim is to
have sex with ...
... middle of paper ...
..., and tetrameters, which are eight syllable lines. Donne
uses an obvious three-part argument, or syllogism, where he uses the
flea to structure it.
Shakespeare uses a sonnet, which was a traditional way of writing
about romantic love. Donne's poem is more intellectual in which he
uses persuasive and rhetorical devices.
The comparison's Shakespeare uses are passionate and interesting, but
Donne's poem is more enjoyable to read since it uses wit and a clever
structure to make it entertaining. The farfetched idea of using a flea
to persuade a woman for sex is very unusual and makes the poem more
enjoyable. Shakespeare's poem is more typical of a love poem, since
the language he uses is more affectionate, but I have found Donne's
more appealing to read because the wittiness and content of the poem
is so unexpected.
Both Millay’s “What my lips have kissed” and Shakespeare’s “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summers Day” poems are created to convey a hidden meaning within the style and central subject matter. The features of each sonnet, outline and contribute to make each have a unique difference from the other. Millay and Shakespeare have very similar writing styles but very different structure within there writing. The meaning behind the two sonnets are very similar and have the same imagery within the text and emphasize love and beauty needs to be eternal like the months of summer appear to be. The sonnets have many similarities and difference’s but have different techniques and features that the words create to contribute to what makes these sonnets special.
Comparing Shakespeare’s Katharina, of The Taming of the Shrew and Beatrice, of Much Ado About Nothing
There are diseases in the world that we can touch and see and there are those which we cannot feel or see. Depression and suicide are one of the few that are not physical diseases but mental. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of deaths in America, and 20-25% of Americans eighteen and older have depression. The two poems ‘Summer Solstice, New York City’ by Sharon Olds, and ‘The Mill’ by Edwin Arlington Robinson are both discussing the different ways that suicide and depression can affect an individual. The first poem by Sharon Olds goes into details of suicide prevention whereas the poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson goes into the details of how suicide and death affect the loved ones of the deceased.
Odell, George C. D. Shakespeare from Betterton to Irving. Vol. 2 New York: Dover Publications, 1966.
Some of the differences I noticed in the play was the Shakespeare streams lines everything causing things to happen more deliberately and seemingly right after the pervious event. He also changes things around in order for the to make more sense in a play format. Other than changing things in order to make in more play friendly I believe
They both deal with mankind changes. Shakespeare talks about the changes in males which changes overtime due to development.
Shakespeare, William. "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?." 1894. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. By X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 6th ed. Boston: Longman, 2010. 501. Print. Compact Edition.
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 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.
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.
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.
Even as time evolves, the constant message, “our differences define us,” continues to release truth not only for people, but for written work also. Works could be completely distant and still share characteristics, as previously discussed. In this case, however, the separate plays merge together in comparisons due to them being written by the same author. Not only are there aspects of mythology depicted in each story, there are also subliminal messages referring to other texts, including the text it is being compared to. The two texts of comparison are both written by the one who was "...widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language (Wikipedia.org).” William Shakespeare is known to have certain qualities in some novels that reflect other texts that he has written. The play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, and the text, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, also by William Shakespeare, there are many qualities that resemble each other in each act, but there are also differences, such as a prologue inclusion, both speak of love to not happen, new love emerging, and leaving an initial place than where the play began.
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.
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...
(A discussion on the contrast and comparison between two characters in Macbeth and The Tempest)