Love and religion are two of the most common topics of poetry. Many of Donne’s poems are on one of these two very different topics, his works are connected through the continuous use of devices such as allusion, metaphor, and pun; providing a bond for each poem, yet a different context for each one. “The Flea,” “Holy Sonnet VII,” and “A Hymn to God the Father” each have distinct themes, but find common ground by the use of common literary devices. “The Flea” is a carnal poem where the speaker tries to convince his lover to be inclined to him. “Holy Sonnet VII” and “A Hymn to God the Father” are religious poems that address apocalyptic visions and serve as a remembrance to God respectfully, while attending to mention the act of pardoning the speaker’s formerly committed wrongdoings
Donne consistently uses allusions, usually Biblical, throughout his poems. Even in an erotic love poem, he manages to insert that “three lives in one flea spare,” alluding to the Christian idea of The Holy Trinity. In “The Flea,” the speaker sheds his religious values by comparing the three bloods mixed inside of the parasite to God, His Son, and the Holy Spirit. This Biblical allusion seems like a paradox, since the speaker tries to pursue an unholy deed by using a spiritual thought. Donne’s use of Biblical allusions follows into “Holy Sonnet VII,” with the overall apocalyptic visions that are present in the sonnet. The first three lines of the sonnet begin with an allusion to Judgment Day, a reminder that the angels will blow their trumpets, and then the humans will “arise, arise/ from death, you numberless infinities.” Not only does this allusion provide a reminder for the end of the world, it also serves as an apostrophe by declaring the angels to “...
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... immortalizes distinct events on a literary note along with Donne’s poetry.
Works Cited
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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)
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to find a place in this world, or rather, a role to play in a society from which he often finds himself detached or withdrawn.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.
This male-ordained self-castration makes the supposedly easy task of assigning gender roles in The Flea a far more complex matter. Donne’s poem hints not at stable patriarchy, but an early modern society questioning and playing with concepts of gender and associated forms of power. There is a straddling of public and private spheres here, yet also a failure to achieve secure identity in either. The Flea points towards a symbolic order in a state of flux.
[6] Donne, John. “From Meditation 17”. Excerpt from McDougal Litell’s “The Language of Literature”, Page 455. McDougal Litell Inc., 2000.
This poem showed the pure genius of John Donne. It is intriguing to look at, especially for the religious imagery and form. His analogy of killing a flea and having sex, allow him to simplify his argument, which makes this a work of genius. His word choice, form, and rhythm all coincided with his major theme. I cannot help but to find this poem hilarious, flirtatious, and less serious than his other works because love, lust, marriage, and conceiving children is nowhere in comparison to a flea or killing one. I think Donne knew this, but through his wit he managed to make the correlation.
“Meditation X”, which Donne wrote in mid-life, has a very defiant and powerful tone. Donne begins the meditation by defying normal views of death, and saying how “death, be not proud” (Donne). In deprecating death, Donne shows how he does not fear something which mortals usually fear. His reckless mockery of death is his appeal to pathos, specifically the human emotion of happiness and determination to live; “Meditation X” is a battle against an inevitable, insidious, and metaphysical force. In “Meditation XVII”, Donne begins instead by deprecating himself, conceding that he “may think [himself] so much better than [he is]” (Donne). This concession conveys a much more acquiescent and passive tone, appealing instead to the human emotions of melancholy and yearning to understand and accept death. Logos is also manipulated by Donne in...
The voice of passion and intelligent mystery is a natural mixture used when projecting an image of God by both Milton in When I consider how my light is spent and Donne in Holy Sonnet XIV. Religion plays a huge part in the sonnets and how they make the reader perceive God. The two authors’ religious practices are so important that their troubles all stem from what they believe is an inability to serve. This is why even when the writers’ immediate demands are not met they still continue to love God. The Christian image of God can be described as eminent and this may be a major reason as to why both Milton and Donne’s representations of God are so adorned. Even though God doesn’t give either author what they ask for, Donne and Milton’s dedication to serving and loving the Lord present a representation of something can only be desirable.
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...
...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’.
"The first poet in the world in some things," applauded Ben Jonson of his friend, John Donne (Donne, John Donne: A Selection of His Poetry 11). In the midst of the stylized and often frivolous verses of the Elizabethan and cavalier poets, John Donne's work emerges as startling, intellectual, and honest to human nature and emotion- classifying him as the first of the modern poets. Through an exploration of Donne's "The Sun Rising" and "The Flea", we shall reveal Donne's innovative style and technique, and how this repels him from the poetic orthodoxy of the seventeenth century and towards the style of the modern age.
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.
"John Donne - Biography and Works." The Literature Network. 1 Jan. 2000. 9 Dec. 2001.
In the Holy Sonnet XIV, John Donne use the exaggerated descriptions to display his tough attitude and faithfulness for God. Also, these words make the sonnet become more inspiring.
No poem of John Donne's is more widely read or more directly associated with Donne than the tenth of the Holy Sonnets,"Death, be not proud." Donne's reputation as a morbid preacher was well-known. He had a portrait of himself made while posed in a winding-sheet so that he could contemplate a personalized memento of death. Donne draws upon a popular subject in medieval and Renaissance art, Le roi mort or King Death. His fascination with death reaches another plateau with this poem. He almost welcomes it and denounces the process as being neither horrifying nor the "end-all be-all." In a contextual point of view, he works to rupture habitual thinking and bring attention to the intensity and depth of a situation by creating doubt or offering a new aspect of his subject. Donne takes this poem and pours forth an array of visions that directly connects to the contextualist in a look at death, the pa...
Metaphysical wit and conceit are two of the most famous literary devices used in the seventeenth century by poets such as John Donne. Emerging out of the Petrarchan era, metaphysical poetry brought a whole new way of expression and imagery dealing with emotional, physical and spiritual issues of that time. In this essay I will critically analyse the poem, The Flea written by John Donne in which he makes light of his sexual intentions with his lover.