A Small Defeat Human desires plague the male mind causing him to go to drastic measures to acquire his wish. John Donne writes his poem “The Flea”, using unlikely symbolism to create an almost humorous, metaphysical love poem. In “The Flea”, the narrator uses the unique symbol of a flea in an attempt to coax his poor mistress to bed. Throughout the entire poem, the flea is symbolic, being compared to acts of marriage, sin, and sex. Overall, Donne depicts a needy lover using a most strange symbol, in his three-part argument, to moralize getting his mistress to sleep with him.
Donne opens his poem immediately building the man’s sex argument, drawing obvious attention to the comparison between sex and this symbolic flea through several examples. In line 1, the narrator dramatically draws attention to his argument: “Mark but this flea, and mark in
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At this point, the narrator’s mistress evidently becomes tired of this petty argument. In rebuttal, the author states, “Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare…” (10). Here the author is using the flea to represent the lives of the narrator and his mistress and the flea. The author pleads to spare the flea, sensing her about to smash the flea, and in turn, deny the man’s looming request. Donne then goes on to compare the flea to the couple’s “marriage bed” and “marriage temple” (15). The narrator starts to give the first hints of what he is actually eluding to marriage and mostly sex. In the last few lines of the second section of the poem, the narrator once more pleads for his mistress to spare their three lives. His concluding thought and comparison being of that to death. The narrator takes his symbol one step further saying if you kill this flea then three times the sin, killing us all in one. The narrator sets up his argument for once final shot at his
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."
In the second stanza Donne changes his attitude about the flea, deciding that it what has occurred within it is actually blessed and wonderful. He points out that there are “three lives in one flea,” referring to himself, his lady, and the flea (2.1). Instead of describing the flea...
Donne argues that by spilling his blood and hers by killing the flea, she is practically committing murder. Not only that, but by breaking the holy bond of marriage she is committing sacrilege! However, the flea is killed, and the poet is forced to change tactics. There, he argues, killing the flea was easy, and as you say it hasn't harmed us - well, yielding to me will be just as easy and painless. This poem borrows a lot of religious imagery, because it helps add an absurd authority to the poem, as Donne tries to argue that what they are about to do is not only supported by God, but to not do it would be heretical.
John Donne deliberately makes his metaphysical love poem "The Flea" light-hearted by using humour t...
In John Donne’s poem “The Flea” the speaker spends the poem begging a young maiden to have sexual intercourse with him. John Donne’s poem “Holy Sonnet XIV” also revolves around a speaker begging. However, the speaker of “Holy Sonnet XIV” is not begging a young maiden. Instead the speaker is begging God to come into his life and help him overcome sin. Both of these poems relay heavily on themes of sexuality and religion. All though both of the poems deal with these themes “The Flea” has a tone of lightheartedness and playfulness while “Holy Sonnet XIV” has a tone of seriousness and sadness. Passion is also explored in both poems. Sexual passion is explored in “The Flea” and Religious Passion is explored in “Holy Sonnet XIV”. Though one poem is about his relationship with a lady and the other about his relationship with God; John Donne’s “The Flea” and his Holy Sonnet “XIV” both rely heavily on the use of metaphors and imagery in order to convey their message.
Donne clearly has a high and lofty image of the human female form. Yet this deification is undermined by the lusty, bawdy qualities of the poem. For example, when Donne reaches the conclusion of the poem he does not summarize his mistress' physical beauty, but instead promises sexual adventure. This is seen in the final three lines,
That John Donne was a preacher, the fire and brimstone, evangelical ringings of religious renewal in this poem are well founded. A man's soul, invaded by Satan's sin, must be purged by whatever means necessary by God's force. Donne associates his corrupted soul with that of an "usurp'd towne," invaded by an enemy (Satan), but "to'another due," (the Trinity). He asks God to break the impurity by force and to beat his soul clean and into repentance. While this all makes sense on the first level, there are many dualities, and sexual undertones present in the 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...
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.
Donne uses the simple round images to symbolize a deeper meaning coupled with metaphor and paradox to create a complex love poem.
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 speakers 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 “blow your trumpets” and starts a conversation in midst of the sonnet. These multiple biblical allusions from “flood” to “fire” serve a remembrance of previous and future happening to the people of earth. Not only are these allusions reminiscence the sayings of God, they are a way to converse with God, for a “devotional poem can be...
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.
Donne's approach at alluring the woman is unusual at first glance--it seems as though he is trying too hard to win her over by talking about an insignificant insect such as a flea. A flea is a parasite that spreads infectious diseases in animals. Yet in his poem, the flea sucks his blood and then the woman's blood, and the two are then mixed into one creature and therefore symbolizing their `marriage.' "It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,/ And in this flea our two bloods mingled be" (lines 3-4). The flea symbolizes the harmony between him and his ladylove. Blood is the river of life and the essence of what all humans are made of. To have her blood with his mixed together reaches a depth that Donne never thought of before--he feels a deep affection for her and an underlying oneness with the woman--and because he feels thi...
His poetry is characterized by the themes of love, mortality, and spirituality. It is bathed in sophistication and complexity of thought. He used active verbs in a jarring manner to capture his conflicting thoughts and emotions. In his use of metaphysical conceit, Donne compared himself to a besieged town, captured by and engaged to Satan. He had attempted to admit God into the town but found he was too weak to do so, even though he loved God dearly. He pleaded with God to “Batter my heart” as though He would use a battering ram on the city walls and secure a divorce for him (Shmoop, 2008). He wanted to belong to God and only God, which he could not do unless God freed him to then imprison him. Donne’s poem is filled with the contradictions he became famous for. Illustrations of love and war, good and evil, captivity and freedom, and spiritual love and carnal love reveal the dual nature of the poem and the challenge in understanding, with certainty, what Donne was trying to convey with such sincerity (Donne, 2005). In last several lines, Donne reveals the ultimate disparity, saying he could never be chaste unless God ravishes him (Donne
The seventeenth century was an era of beautiful poetry. Two poets in particular, Andrew Marvell and John Donne, wrote carpe diem poetry full of vivid imagery and metaphysical conceits. Each conveyed the message of "living for the now." This message can be clearly seen in the poems "To his Coy Mistress" by Marvell and Donne’s "Flea." By using clever metaphors and meter, the poems not only are symbolic, but have almost a physical aspect to them. Though both poems take a similar approach, it is Marvell that writes the more persuasive one, reaching deep into the soul to win his object of affection.