A Poet’s Guide to Elaborate Flirtation During the sixteenth century, one would imagine that most literary pieces would be prudent and refined. Free of explicit, unsavory details pertaining to any garish or ungodly acts, such as premarital sex. Though this perception can be argued, it is understandably derived from the political and religious state of Britain at the time. There was a general avoidance of discussing concepts or partaking in anything of a sexual nature, many believing it was a mortal sin outside the bonds of marriage. However, considering this era in Britain was also that of much change and exploration, creatives started to reflect this new spirit in their art. One such work of art that portrays this is “The Flea”, by John …show more content…
Yet, a more in depth look at the poem reveals that this suitor is actually arguing a point to his prospective partner. With the use of conceit, the suitor begins his argument by condemning the act of intercourse, comparing it to sin outside a martial bond. He disparages the act further by claiming that it cannot hold tremendous importance if the same effects can be achieved within the flea’s body. This is exemplified in the following lines “And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;/ Thou know’st that this cannot be said/ A sin, or shame, or loss of maidenhead” (Lines 4-6). With the use of this technique, Donne is able to convey the general perception of premarital sex, in that it is a sin and signifies the loss of innocence, to begin his attempt at persuading his prospective lover. By comparing it to its unlikely foil, the flea that holds their blood, he essentially makes a case that the act itself is essentially …show more content…
Similarly, when his potential lover refuses the idea that their bond lies within a flea, she literally crushes the suitor’s metaphor by killing it. The suitor then states that her killing the flea was equivalent to the smiting of their bond and her innocence. This can be seen in the following example, “Cruel and sudden, hast thou since/ Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?” (Line 19-20). So, in a strange turn of events, the lady who denied the suitor’s attempts to enact intimacy, has now lost her virginity and innocence by killing “their sacred bond”, or the flea. The use of metaphor in this poem is used in such a way that not only carries the narrative but also creates vivid imagery for the audience. When the flea is deemed the vessel of the bond between the suitor and lady, the pesky bug is almost given a badge of honor and importance, which is not usually bestowed upon it. One could say this makes it all the more crushing, pun intended, when the flea is killed, as if loved itself has died within the small belly of a bug. To counter, by being witness to the gaudiness of each metaphor, one can assume the eccentric nature of the suitor himself, divulging details of his character qualities. With Donne’s expert use of metaphor, maintains artistic attributes while providing the reader with multi-layered material to
The imagery in this passage helps turn the tone of the poem from victimization to anger. In addition to fire images, the overall language is completely stripped down to bare ugliness. In previous lines, the sordidness has been intermixed with cheerful euphemisms: the agonizing work is an "exquisite dance" (24); the trembling hands are "white gulls" (22); the cough is "gay" (25). But in these later lines, all aesthetically pleasing terms vanish, leaving "sweet and …blood" (85), "naked… [and]…bony children" (89), and a "skeleton body" (95).
He is suggesting that they are united in this flea and ,thus, would equally be united in intimacy. In addition, he states, "This flea is you and I, and this our marriage bed, and marriage temple is." The speaker is suggesting that through the flea the two are married. Again, the flea represents marriage, union, and consummation through intimacy. However, the woman crushes the flea, thus, refusing his request, and states that neither she nor he is weakened by its death.
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...
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.
During the 17th century, certain poets wrote poems with the specific purpose of persuading a woman to have sexual intercourse with them. Three of these seduction poems utilize several strategies to do this: Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress,” and Donne’s “A Valediction: Forbidden Mourning” and “The Flea.” Some of the reasoning used by both poets is similar to the reasoning used today by men to convince women to have sexual intercourse with them. These gimmicks vary from poem to poem but coincide with modern day rationalization. The tactics used in 17th century seduction poems are relevant and similar to the seduction tactics used in the 21st century.
...onne uses the flea throughout his poem as an essential link between sexual conquest and union. The flea transcends its initial existence as an irritating bug and become an existence essential to their union. It is through this representation of the flea, which allows Donne to draw the reader into an argument of carnal desire trumping propriety. The flea is essential to this argument, without which there is nothing grounding the obvious leaps of logic made by the speaker and Donne. The conceit is a popular literary device Donne uses in his poetry, and in this particular case he uses it masterfully throughout the entire poem to create a love poem that straddles the line between poetry and rhetoric.
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.
...urch. And even though he desires her, his love and respect for women is always present. “The Flea” is its own mingling of lust, love, and Christianity, married by Donne.
On the surface, John Donne’s poem “The Flea” dramatizes the conflict between two people on the issue of premarital sex, however, under the surface, the poem uses religious imagery to seduce the woman into having sex. The speaker in this poem is a man, who is strategically trying to convince a woman to have premarital sex with him through the conceit based on a flea, however, the coy lady has thus far yielded to his lustful desires. The speaker’s argument has the form of logic, which contradicts to its outrageous content.
Perhaps the most admirable quality of a poet is their ability to develop and combined ideas, images, metaphors, and symbols while uniquely interpreting these literary devices to reflect their own perspective. Poetic works produced during the seventeenth century were fundamentally rooted in the cultural and intellectual movements of the time, the renaissance during the Elizabethan Era. Seventeenth-century poems contributed unique insights into cultural life but they also positively influence the portrayal of cultural values. These poets incorporated “new ideas and new social, political, and economic forces” alongside the newly discovered “emphasis on the worth of life and the malleability of the individual” (Norton 472). Principally, Elizabethan
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 first argument, the speaker attempts to persuade the woman that making love with him will be as insignificant as the flea’s bite that has taken blood from them. He begins by stating the sex that “thou deniest me” (Donne 2) means nothing, just like the flea’s bite. The bite remains a small mark on her body: the mark on her conscience from having sex
Although Raleigh’s title does not describe the nymph, her reply is an exercise in freedom to think for herself and express her own values. Marlowe 's poem offers no evidence that his “love” is a nymph; however, Raleigh makes the speaker a nymph who playfully mocks the shepherd’s request. Raleigh clarifies this intention by using six stanzas of four lines and the same iambic tetrameter used by Marlowe. The nymph 's choice to mirror the shepherd 's structure indicates that her “reply” is a systematic deconstruction of his argument. Mockingly, she concedes, “if all the world and love were young and truth in every shepherd’s tongue,” then she would “live with thee and be thy love”; in other words, the nymph playfully suggests that these propositions are not true. By using the same rhythm and turning the shepherd 's requests back upon themselves, the nymph echoes the shepherd 's
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 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