Just as every author has their own particular writing so does John Donne in his poem “The Flea”. Just by reading his title, why would an author choose that as a topic? How can a poem be meaningful if the subject is a fly? What message could a flea possibly give? John Donne has a unique writing to turn something commmonly known in our everyday lives, that majority of society find a bother, into a thought. As people, we often don’t think about other things like how we would of ourselves. If it isn’t another human being or an animal that you love or know of, you don’t pay much attention or care for it. For example, people don’t think of fleas of having a purpose to life but just to suck ours blood and leave itchy bumps. However, this author uses the flea as symbol to convey a message to his lady friend throughout his poem. Poems can have multiple themes such as this one. The themes of this poem are persuasion, romance and allurement. In order to interpret these themes John Donne uses metaphor, personification, and imagery. Metaphors are widely used in order to present themes. A metaphor is comparing two things without using the word “like” or “as”. By incorporating comparsions, it is a useful helping literary device to allow any author’s audience, who are having a diffcult time, reading have a better way to interpret their texts. John Donne compares a flea to a baby, in his poem there is a flea sucking his blood then hops to a lady to suck hers as well. A flea that sucks your blood, what is so unusual? His uniqueness writing makes something simple into a more complex thought. We know how babies are made and how a baby becomes to be, it contains the offsprings from Parent 1 and Parent 2. Well in his poem, his character’s first attempt to allure this lady states “And this flea out two bloods mingled be: Thou know’st that this cannot be said A sin, nor a shame……” (Donne), he explains to the lady that this flea contains both of their blood/DNA which it could be their child. The author is trying to persuade her to a deeper thought that they “technically” have a child together, so they might as well physcially have sexual initmacy. Personification is a literacy device, giving a non-human quailties that only humans
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.
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
Metaphors and similes are comparing two unlike objects, and should have nothing to do with the action of a living thing.
be seen by the way he uses words like “Had we” and “we would”. This 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.
Authors use metaphors to make comparisons that the reader has to ponder on and consider, opposed to a simile where the comparison is blatantly displayed. Metaphors can be helpful to readers in the regard that they allow the reader to make connections within the text that they might not have made without the metaphor. Author David Levithan uses a metaphor to help the reader equate depression to something the reader might understand better. In the text, the main character states, “Depression has been likened to both a black cloud and a black black dog. For someone like Kelsea, the black dog is the right metaphor ”(Levithan 121). This quote tells the reader that depression can be equated to a black figure, or a dark looming presence. This could
The metaphor is further enforced in lines 8 and 9 when Donne illustrates the image of the swollen flea "pampered swells with one blood made of two" (line 8) introducing the image of a baby, and the idea of pregnancy. With the possible allusion of a pregnancy Donne is emphasizing that he is attempting to sleep with the woman. Thus, Donne continues to use the image of a flea to unconventionally simplify lovemaking. The absurdity of the poem is portrayed through the use of a flea to convince a woman into bed, when a flea would typically connote repulsiveness, dependency, and something ugly and simple, which mooches off of others. In the second stanza of the poem, the speaker continues to emphasize his conceit, although it has become clear that the woman wants to remove the flea from her body, and consequentially the relationship with the speaker. "Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare" (line 10), the speaker is now relying on guilt, persuading the woman to spare not only the life of the flea, however he goes as far as mentioning the lives of himself and the woman. Drawing a comparison once again to the act of love, the speaker mentions marriage, portraying that the flea has joined them eternally much like a marriage would. Marriage is a significant motif in the second stanza, which also relates to
A text is essentially a product of its context, as its prevailing values are inherently derived by the author from society. However, the emergence of post-modern theories allows for audience interpretation, thus it must be recognised that meaning in texts can be shaped and reshaped. Significantly, this may occur as connections between texts are explored. These notions are reflected in the compostion of Edson’s W;t and Donne’s poetry as their relationship is established through intertextual references, corresponding values and ideas and the use of language features. Edson particularly portrays key values surrounding the notions of the importance of loved based relationships, and death and resurrection: central themes of Donne’s Holy Sonnets
that this act of the flea having both of their blood in its body is
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.
To this day John Donne is still considered to be one of the greatest love poets from England. He was born to a Elizabeth Heywood and John Donne, some time between January 24th and June 19th in 1572. His mother Elizabeth Heywood was the youngest of her siblings and the grand-niece to the Catholic Martyr Thomas More. His father John Donne was a prosperous London merchant, but his actual father died when Donne was only four and was believed to be a descendant from an ancient family in Wales. The family was Roman Catholic and this was a very anti-catholic period in England and this would greatly affect Donne in many ways throughout his life.
Finally, "The Flea" contains two major unique characteristics. One of Donne's most successful effects is sudden contrast.ii[ii] The insect seems to be no connection with romance, but by sucking blood of two characters of the poem, the flea builds a bridge between the two persons that surprises many readers.
A metaphysical conceit is a striking and effective comparison used my metaphysical poets to establish a relationship between two things for the sake of being strange. I feel that John Donne captured this literary technique the best in his two famous poems “The Flea” and “The Sun Rising.” The major image in the “The Flea” is of course, the flea. He is comparing the flea to his lover’s and his “marriage bed and temple.” He is trying to show his lover that, even though she won’t have premarital sex with him, that they are intertwined within the body of the flea. They are more than married because the flea has mingled his blood, her blood, and its blood to create a union more than marriage. Saying that it would be a sin to kill the flea because
metaphor. Which is basically comparing two things without using like or as. The poem starts
John Donne John Donne had a rich life full of travel, women and religion. Donne was born in 1572 on Bread Street in London. The family was Roman Catholic which was dangerous during this time when Catholicism was being abolished and protestant was taking over. Donne’s farther was an iron monger who died in 1576. At 11 Donne and his younger brother went to university and studied there for three years then he went to Cambridge for a further three years.