The representation of sexual pleasure and intercourse throughout “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell and “The Flea” by John Donne functions as a way to present, confirm and refute the traditional stereotypical view of carpe diem love poetry. The speakers within both poems aim to “seize the day” by wooing and taking advantage of women and their virginity and sexuality. They not only want to take advantage of the time they have but also make sure they do not regret not doing anything in the future. In specific, “To His Coy Mistress” presents the view that men are able to manipulate and seduce women through the use of inappropriate and often graphic imagery. The speaker identifies the couple’s lack of time as a way to advance his wooing and potentially speed up the foreplay. In doing so, the speaker is presented as being persistent and sleazy due to his relentlessness of pursuing. Representation of carpe diem love is also shown in “The Flea.” This poem contains a different tone than that of “To His Coy Mistress” due to the speaker being shown as less threatening in his sexual pursuit of the woman. The speaker shows the representation with the male’s sexual agenda being aided by the description of a flea as well as the usage of “flirty” and often humorous language. Both poems are discussing and referring to the act of sexual intercourse and in doing so relate these exploits to the commonly used theme of carpe diem to justify the speaker’s actions.
“To His Coy Mistress” by
‘To His Coy Mistress’ was written by Andrew Marvell (1621-1678). The poem is a metaphysical poem, which was mostly used in the seventeenth century and was classed as a highly intellectual type of poetry and mainly expressed the complexities of love and life; just as this poem is. In brief the poem is about seizing every opportunity in life and not caring about the past or future. In other words ‘seize the day’. The poem also explores the nature of seduction.
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
In the two poems “The Flea” and “To His Coy Mistress” Donne and Marvell make it very clear to readers that no matter the time period lust is always relevant. The only difference between the two poems is how men will attempt to persuade women into giving their virginity. During both poems it is made clear that a woman giving her virginity before marriage is one of the worse things possible. In “The Flea” Donne writes: “Thou know’st that this cannot be said a sin, or shame, or loss of maidenhead.” (ln 5-6). This is relevant because it shows that in this time period once a woman’s virginity is given she is shamed, and has lost all of her respect as a person. Both men in both poems understand the importance of a woman’s virginity which is
John Donne’s poems are similar in their content. They usually point out at same topics like love, lust, sex and religion; only they are dissimilar in the feelings they express. These subjects reflect the different stages of his life: the lust of his youth, the love of his married middle age, and the piety of the latter part of his life. His poem,’ The Flea’ represents the restless feeling of lust during his youthful days but it comes together with a true respect for women through the metaphysical conceit of the flea as a church in the rhythm of the sexual act.
He uses the flea as an excuse for marriage and that they are now permitted to have sex. Out of desperation Donne shifts to a more religiously point of view by saying, “And sacrilege, three sinnes in killing three.” (Line 18) This means that if the woman kills the flea, she is killing the flea, him, herself, and God. However, the women squashes the flea along with his argument and Donne is left with one final go at convincing the woman. The final stanza of the poem expresses his sheer desperation to have sex with the woman as he deviates to using a lenient approach. He blames her not for killing the flea, but says that her act did not damage her honour in any way, and that she should still “yeeld’st to mee” (Line 26), or should still sleep with him. The content of The Flea demonstrates the exact sexist attitude that John Donne possessed when he wrote his early love poems. Likewise, the same desire for physical pleasure can be seen in the poem The Sunne Rising. This poem encompasses Donne’s ignorance of his surroundings and his obsession for sexual pleasure. Throughout the poem he attacks and challenges the sun with contempt, and does so by personifying it. He is obviously disturbed and troubled by the “unruly Sunne” (Line 1) and tells
Love, an extremely and unsurprisingly popular topic among writers in every time period and corner of the world, is the central subject of two similar, yet contradicting literary works – “The Passionate Shepard to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe and “The Bait” by John Donne, respectively. Each author masterfully utilizes imagery, but in different ways to achieve two different purposes. Marlowe’s idealistic vision of what love should be is countered by Donne’s rather cynical realism.
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.
In “To His Coy Mistress” it’s about a guy trying to conquer the love of a mistress. He tells her how much time he will wait for her and his love will endure forever as long as she is with him. Later the tone changes and it’s when carpe diem takes place. He starts to say that they don’t have all the time in the world and that one day all this will end. He points out that beauty one day will end and that she should take the advantage of being with him now that she is young and beautiful and not waiting till she’s old and wrinkly. Also he mentions her virginity and says that she should have sexual intercourse before she dies because if she dies as a virgin it’s the same thing as doing it while being alive because worms will still get inside her and eat all her remains. He wants to be with her, and would’ve waited a long time to get what he wanted, but since they don’t have all the time in the world and one day will die he wants
John Donne’s persuasive poem “The Flea” was written in 1633. Through the use of symbols, the poet attempt to convey a deep message. The poet attempts to convince a woman into having sex without outside of marriage, he is rejected on many counts. Donne attempts conveys his theme of desire through sexual innuendo with the utilization of symbolism of metaphors and diction.
At first, after discovering she had frequent migraines, Didion denied her predicament. She felt embarrassed, like it was a secret that would enforce to others her negative qualities. Eventually, she began to accept the fact that migraines were simply something she would have to get used to.
Both ‘Mrs Sisyphus’ and ‘the Flea’ seek to present us with complex, arguably discordant relationships between men and women. Duffy and Donne exploit the satirical potential of light-hearted comic verse to present serious issues in a light-hearted manner. Despite the overwhelmingly light-hearted tone of both poems, it can still be argued that relationships are presented in a negative light.
love. In just two lines we can already the feel of the poem and build
Comparing The Flea and Valentine "The flea" is a metaphysical poem about a man trying to argue a virgin into bed to have sexual intercourse with him. This poem was most likely written to amuse the readers and probably more for a larger male audience. The poem was written in the late 17th century in a period where sex within marriage was like a household chore, but socially, sex before marriage was like a sin, because society was extremely religious. John Donne is attempting to get these thoughts out of her head and persuade her to have sex with him.
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.
‘To His Coy Mistress’ Is a love poem by Andrew Marvel. The poem is ‘carpe diem’ which translates to seize the day, this means the poem does not take its time its blunt and straight to the point. The poem contains a thesis, antithesis and synthesis, the main argument points of the poem. The poem is split into three stanza’s which are used to persuade the woman to give up her virginity before her beauty dies. It is a conventional poem for its time in the 17th century.