Explication Of The Flea By John Donne

667 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Flea by john donne analysis

Journal 7 “The Flea” by John Donne is a poem first published in 1633. The poem is a nine-line stanzas which rhyming scheme in each stanza. The lines in the poem switch back and forth between iambic pentameter and iambic tetrameter. The poem is written in old style English, which to me leaves room for open interpretation. In my opinion, the speaker uses the flea as a sign for him and his love to be romantic and to pursue her to give him more of her. The speaker wants his love to view the flea that has bitten him and then bite her as a union that has joined them. He explains the flea has sucked his blood and her blood and now contains a piece of both of them. This poem seems to be saying how much he loves her and even though they are not

Show More
Related

  • Analysis of the Poem, The Flea by John Donne

    476 Words  | 1 Pages

    Analysis of the Poem “The Flea” by John Donne. Poets have often used symbols to convey deeper messages that they were either too afraid of or felt that normal language lacked the power to express. Often when a symbol is used, the reader digs deeper into the issue more than if the message was simply shot out in the open. These symbols and metaphors can be used to portray beautiful things, or can be used to create a more compelling argument in a more subtle way.

    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

  • An Examination of the Complexities of Love in Millay's Poem, Love Is Not All

    532 Words  | 2 Pages

    Millay uses romantic language. That is evident in the first line, "Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink". The romantic aspect of love is shown in the language of this poem. The poem is not directly about two lovers. It is more indirect, this is what two lovers may face. Her language is picturesque. "Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink / And rise and sink and rise and sink again;" It is as if the poem was showing a picture of a man in the sea that is struggling to survive and throughout the course of bobbing up and down he continues to see a pole or paddle, but he just can't reach it. There are more ideas that can be pictured easily throughout the poem, because of the language that Millay uses. "Love can no fill the thickened lung with breath, / Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;" These lines create an interesting picture in your mind.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Flea by John Donne

    426 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Comparing The Passionate Shepherd to His Love and Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd

    917 Words  | 2 Pages

    The. Maybe it is a genuine love poem to his mistress, sort of. offer of a way of life. Both concepts, though, underline the point. simplistic romanticism of the poem.

    Read More

  • The Persuasive Tone of The Flea

    769 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • John Donne's The Indifference

    1317 Words  | 3 Pages

    John Donne's "The Indifference" is a love poem that can be interpreted in a number of ways. Not only is the meaning of the text debatable, but the audience for which the poem was intended can be argued as well. The language Donne uses leaves room for the reader's imagination and intellect to take over and decide to whom he is talking and why. The author is writing to a specific audience for a specific reason, trying to convey his point through his verse. While not all people agree as to whom this poem is intended for or whom the speaker is actually talking to, I have a good understanding as to what Donne is trying to accomplish by writing "The Indifference" and whom the voice of the piece is actually talking to. The interpretation that I found to be most convincing is that he is speaking to a woman, who is by herself, and he is letting her know what kind of qualities (or lack there of) he is looking for. He is giving a disclaimer to her on the type of person he is and how he views relationships so she knows what she's getting herself into. The first stanza starts off with the speaker listing opposite character types. All of the types listed refer to different types of women, "Her whom the county formed, and whom the town" and "Her who still weeps with spongy eyes, / And her who is dry cork, and never cries". The speaker is not referring to one type of woman in particular, but to all women in general. He is telling the woman that he is addressing know just how many different types of woman he can or will potentially be interested in.

    Read More

  • Analysis of John Donne's Poem, The Flea

    1411 Words  | 3 Pages

    John Donne’s poems are similar in their content. They usually point out at same topics like love, lust, sex and religion; only they are dissimilar in the feelings they express. These subjects reflect the different stages of his life: the lust of his youth, the love of his married middle age, and the piety of the latter part of his life. His poem,’ The Flea’ represents the restless feeling of lust during his youthful days but it comes together with a true respect for women through the metaphysical conceit of the flea as a church in the rhythm of the sexual act.

    Read More

  • Explication of John Donne's The Flea

    1079 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of John Donne's The Bait By John Donne

    1196 Words  | 3 Pages

    John Donne’s ‘The Bait’ is essentially, in terms of content, an erotic invitatory masked in a metaphysical, typically abstract - in terms of Donne 's poetic oeuvre - piscatorial conceit, in which the speaking persona analogises men and women with fish and bait, respectively. In this essay, I will be exploring how Donne constructs a multiplicity of meaning throughout the text, with particular focus on the bubbling undercurrents of libido and misogyny, the use of hyperbole, paradox and overtly sexual imagery, and the self-contained, almost oppressively rigid form. Consisting of seven quatrains, a series of rhyming couplets and written in iambic tetrameter (initially eliciting the metronomic aural quality of a heartbeat before evolving into

    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

  • 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 highlights 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.

    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

  • 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

  • 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

More about Explication Of The Flea By John Donne

Open Document