John Donne The Flea

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,

     In the poem “The Flea” by John Donne, the speaker uses clever sexual innuendo and metaphors in an attempt to manipulate a certain girl into losing her virginity to him. The poem begins with the speaker explaining that a flea has bit both him and her, and now both of

be seen by the way he uses words like “Had we” and “we would”. This is

The speaker in "The Flea" is a restless, would-be lover who is trying to convince his beloved to give her virginity to him. Therefore, to convince his lover, the speaker

Following a unique poetic language of the Renaissance, John Donne's ‘The Flea' is a poem illustrating the metaphor of a flea to represent the sexual act and relations between a man and woman. Portrayed through language, imagery, and structure John Donne's poem is one of conceit and seduction, as the speaker (assumed to be a man) follows a consistent pattern of persuasion to have premarital sex with a woman.

The speaker uses words such as “louring” (line 2), “deep deceit” (line 8), “grievous” (line 11) and “bale” (line 140. All of these words have sorrowful and despairing meanings to them which gives the whole poem an unhappy tone. The third and fourth lines discus that the speaker cannot even look at the beautiful face, which appears to grow more attractive daily, of the woman he loves. Moreover, the couplet tells the readers that the sorrow in the speaker’s eyes is there because of the pain he has felt due to his faulty relationship. The mouse that “lies aloof for fear of more mishap” (line 7) shows the misery felt by the speaker by using the words “aloof” and “mishap”. “Aloof” means to be stand-offish or reserved, which the speaker is because if he gets too close, he will be hurt again. “Mishap” means disaster or unfortune which altogether sounds miserable. Had the speaker used diction that was lighter or less depressed, the reader truly would not understand the misery the speaker has went through. The miserable diction depicts the deep wounds the speaker received from his love, shedding light to how much he really loved her and how bad she really hurt

Symbolisation is also used to counteract the miserable life of an Australian housewife. This can be seen in the line “She practises a fugue, though it can matter to no one now if she plays well or not, (stanza one, line one).” This line suggests that the woman portrayed is a musician. The poem latter reads, “Once she played for Rubinstein, who yawned,” (stanza one, line nine). This suggests she was talented enough to present to Rubenstein but didn’t succeed. “The children caper, round a sprung mousetrap where a mouse lies dead.” This line symbolizes the housewife. Her dreams of becoming a musician are trapped within her own environment. This same line can also evaluate the difficulties and harshness of the urban Australian life. Seeming sad this is something that is exciting to the children.

    The poem is structured as a sonnet which commonly expresses a theme of love throughout the lines. Also it is paired with the “ABAB” rhyme scheme to give an emotional view to the readers about the conflict he has. Also the sonnet and the rhyme scheme is a common usage of poem making and many people know what it is, so the poet uses this structure to let readers understand more easily and clearly. He also uses the “ABAB” scheme to separate parts that are important within themselves. In the first four lines, it talks about the poet himself and how much he tries to avoid the one she loves by “ hold my louring head so low”(Line 2). In the next four lines, it talks about the mouse and how its problems relates with the poet’s emotional pain. After that, the next four lines talks about the fly and how it relates with the author with his physical pain. Using these methods help the poet communicate with the readers easily.

This visual imagery is used to masterfully paint the vivid picture of the speaker’s continuous despair and agony he endures. For example, “The mouse which once hath broken out of the trap is seldom ‘ticed with the trustless bait” (Lines 6-7). The speaker is identifying the intelligence of mice to avoid the very thing that caused them pain. But this masterfully coined phrase provokes an interrogative sense of thinking in the reader as to why he always returns to his “trustless bait” (Line 6). Therefore, he inevitably falls for his former lover’s beauty time and time again, regardless of the pain the sight of her causes him.

In stanza four the pronoun “you” is introduce. We assume its Collin prior relationship, as its only stanza that doesn’t contains Collin pet analogy and first evidence contributing to the theme. The metaphor shift to abstract when Collin deny her worthiness and what she meant to his life. But, as he subtracted himself to the “combination”, he was able to discover her value rather measuring his spouse love and intimacy. Repetitions occur, such as “awkward and bewildering” to represent the time when his spouse was companion to him, but he couldn’t reciprocate those same nurturing feelings back to her. In addition, his spouse “held” him more than he ever did. He regrets it now when he is holding his dog but the dog is incapable to measure that same actions and words because of law of nature. The last stanza line, “..now we are both lost in strange and distant neighborhood.”, is another metaphor reference the way a lost dog might feel to his lost love that can’t ever be the same

In the poem, the reader finds Burns sitting in his pew in church where he notices a louse, a small wingless insect sometimes called lice or fleas, crawling upon the bonnet of a young and elegant lady in the seat in front of him. At this point in the poem Burns is surprised that the louse would dare set his feet upon such a fine lady rather than that of a beggar or vagabond in the streets, where a louse would normally be found. Here Burns then goes on to describe the louse as “Detested, shunn’d, by saunt (saint) an’ sinner” and more usually associated with the likes of the lower class, such as beggars and slaves, and not the upper class from which the lady is from, according to “The Bard: Robert Burns, a Biography” by Robert Crawford. Burns then begins to admire the bravado and courage of the louse as he makes the trek up the noble lady’s bonnet. Where Burns then turns his attention to the elegant lady whom he calls “Jenny.” Which he then tells her not to shake her head in an air of pride as she is completely unaware of the humorous effect that the sight of the louse has upon all of the people nearby. As Burns watches those around him take notice of this spectacle in front of him he wishes that the supreme power of God would give us the ability to see ourselves as others see us. Thus, riding ourselves of our pride, vanity, and misconceptions in one another created by the human construct of class in society and

He takes it a step further by stating that in the flea they “yea more than married are” (2.1). It is one thing to note that a flea contains two individuals’ blood, but to say that this union is greater than marriage is very extreme. Yet Donne executes this unlikely comparison with the utmost confidence, creating a surprisingly poignant argument. When the speaker says “though parents grudge,” he acknowledges that the woman’s parents (and society in general) would show great disapproval for such behavior (2.5). However, he replies that they are “cloistered in these walls of jet” (2.6). He describes their blood as secluded within the flea to remind his lady that they are also far away from any condemning parents. When the lady threatens to kill the flea, the speaker shows his opposition when he states “And sacrilege, three sins in killing three” (2.9). Once again, it seems strange to jump to the defense of a bothersome insect, but when we consider the flea as two lovers and the chamber that houses them it becomes more rational.

The Flea and To His Coy Mistress are two poems written by poets living during the Renaissance Period. To His Coy Mistress was written by Andrew Marvell and The Flea was written by John Donne. Both of these poets were well-educated 'metaphysical poets', and these poems illustrate metaphysical concerns, highly abstract and theoretical ideas, that the poets would have been interested in. Both poems are based around the same idea of trying to reason with a 'mistress' as to why they should give up their virginity to the poet.

    John Donne, a member of metaphysical school in the Seventeenth century, exhibited his brilliant talent in poetry. In "The Flea," he showed the passion to his mistress via persuasive attitude. The tone might straightforwardly create playfulness or sinfulness; yet, the poem contains none of either. What impress readers most is situation and device. The situation between the speaker and the audience is persuasion, love or marriage. As to device, the notable parts are diction and rhetoric skills. Furthermore, unique characteristics of this poem are also an important element of his persuasive tone.

In the second stanza, Donne goes on to make the point that the flea is