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Conceits and images of john donne poetry
Conceits and images of john donne poetry
Conceits and images of john donne poetry
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Seduction in John Donne's The Flea
Poetry is not only a brilliant form of expression, but also a powerful tool for persuasion. The renowned metaphysical poet John Donne uses the genre for this very purpose in “The Flea,” a work in which he encourages a young woman to have premarital sex with him. Donne backs his argument by referring to a flea that has sucked his own blood as well as his lover’s. In the first stanza Donne assures the woman that sleeping together would be a minor act. When he says “How little that which thou deniest me is” he promises the woman that the act would be as miniscule as the flea is in size (1.2). Also, by using the word “deniest” he tries to make the women feel a sense of guilt, as if she is depriving him of something that he is rightfully entitled to. He goes on to say that “in this flea, our two bloods mingled be” (1.4). As the footnotes point out, this borrows from a notion presented by Ovid that the mixing of bloods occurs during sexual intercourse. When Donne states that such an event is not “A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead” he is saying that there is no need to cast judgment on the mingling that has occurred. “Loss of maidenhead” implies losing virginity, so the speaker is telling the lady that she should not feel any guilt over such a thing. This would certainly contradict the cultural standards of the time, yet Donne plays it off as nothing to fret over.
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...
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...h honor, when thou yield’st to me,/ Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee (3.8-9).
The rhyme scheme of the poem also makes use of sound to convey meaning.
The “AABBCCDDD” rhyme scheme is similar to the meter because the final lines of the poem stray from the previous standards. In this case it is the final three lines that rhyme to stand out from the sets of two rhyming lines that precede them. When the poem is read or sung aloud, the final three lines stay with the listener because they vary from the usual rhyme scheme. Since Donne’s purpose is to get a woman to go to bed with him, this technique could be a way of subliminally coaxing her to give in to his persuasion. Just as the poem uses a clever comparison to grab the reader’s attention, the sound uses variation to achieve a similar effect.
Based on her reaction, the speaker states, "Tis true...Just so much honor, when they yield'st to me, Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee." In other words, he twists his argument to make the point that the woman will lose as much giving herself to him as she lost killing the flea - NOTHING! Secondly, Donne's use of rhythm aids in shaping the poem's meaning. The poem has alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and pentameter. However, Donne varies this rhythm to create emphasis on particular words or phrases. For instance, in the first stanza he states, "Mark but this flea, and mark in this." Instead of beginning with an unstressed word or syllable as in iambic, Donne stresses the word "Mark." This is important in accentuating his argument.
critique the misogyny and misrepresentations of marriages put forth by male poets, such as John Donne,
There is a similar theme running through both of the poems, in which both mistresses are refusing to partake in sexual intercourse with both of the poets. The way in which both poets present their argument is quite different as Marvell is writing from a perspective from which he is depicting his mistress as being 'coy', and essentially, mean, in refusing him sex, and Donne is comparing the blood lost by a flea bite to the blood that would be united during sex. Marvell immediately makes clear his thoughts in the poem when he says, "Had we but world enough, and time/ This coyness, Lady were no crime", he is conveying the 'carpe diem' idea that there is not enough time for her to be 'coy' and refuse him sexual intercourse and he justifies this thought when he suggests when she is dead, in ?thy marble vault?, and ?worms shall try that long preserved virginity?. He is using the idea of worms crawling all over and in her corpse as a way of saying that the worms are going to take her virginity if she waits until death. Donne justifies his bid for her virginity in a much longer and more methodical way, he uses the idea of the flea taking her blood and mixing it with his, ?It suck?d me first, and now sucks thee?, and then...
Peterson, Eric. "The Consequences of Gun Control." Oklahoma Wesleyan University. The Keating Center, 18 Apr. 2013. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
Learning about how a culture that is new to someone functions and was began is what I think class is about. International Communication wants us to see cultures and learn how they work not only by themselves but also in relations to the United States. “In the face of Westernization, Saudi Arabia remains committed to traditional values.” While this chapter of the book helped the further education of the country Saudi Arabia, it also showed how it is struggling to keep traditions strong in the face of an overpowering influence from the west.
Phillips, Scott W., Kim Dae-Young, and James J. Sobol. "An Evaluation Of A Multiyear Gun Buy-Back Programme: Re-Examining The Impact On Violent Crimes." International Journal Of Police Science & Management 15.3 (2013): 246-261. Academic Search Complete. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
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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 benefit when guns are restricted to own is reducing homicides. Gun is one of the best killing weapons; it is created to put an end to the life of the target that it aims at. Therefore, it ...
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.
Saudi government made it a point to provide equal educational opportunities to all Saudi nationals irrespective of their sex and age. It established the policy of sending students abroad for education and signed contracts with teachers from different parts of the world to come and teach Arabic and English in Saudi Arabia. It also started conducting business transactions with the world. With the advancement in business, science and technology, English became very important and the number of foreign teachers of English in Saudi Arabia kept increasing steadily. New Universities were established and Saudi citizens started joining the Departments of English where they were trained/ educated to teach English.
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