the bait

Donne’s poem warns that the woman that the man seeks is not necessarily worth catching. That idea is seen in lines

In your answer you should consider the ways in which Donne and Jennings use form, structure and language to present their thoughts and ideas. You should make relevant references to your wider reading in the poetry of love (40 marks).

The theme of this poem was easily determined after reading through the poem. The poet has a certain desire of the woman he’s trying to get into his bed, making sex seem like no big deal, “How little that which thou deniest me is” (Donne); sex wasn’t taken lightly in the 17th century for unmarried woman and he attempts to make it seem as small as a flea. He is straightforward with his offer; rather than attempting to arouse the woman, he attempted to appeal to her sense of reason. Donne is in belief that she was tempted, so he attempts to coerce her into the deed. Marriage is a reoccurring theme and use of persuasion go get the woman to have sex with him, “O stay, three lives in one flea spare. Where we almost, yeah more than married are” (Donne). He uses the second stanza to focus on marriage.

In the poem “To His Coy Mistress” the man uses the idea that one day he and his lover will grow old and no longer be beautiful, and that they must take advantage of the opportunity to have sex while they are still full of youth and energy. In the poem Marvell writes: “Thy beauty shall no more be found, nor in thy marble vault, shall sound my echoing song; then worms shall try that long preserved virginity.” (Ln 25-28). This is relevant because it makes clear that there is no telling how life will turn out and while she is trying to maintain honor what good will it be if she dies of old age and worms take her purity. In the poem “The Flea” Donne takes a different route of attack by trying to convince the woman that just because she gives up her virginity does not make her any less of a woman nor does it give her a legitimate reason to kill herself. In the poem Donne writes: “Yet thou triumph’st, and say’st that thou find’st not thy self nor me the weaker now.” (ln 23-24). This is relevant because it insinuates that they are human, and just because others say they are less than that because of sex before marriage does not make it true nor should they feel like it

Through the use of diction, poets Robert Browning, Matthew Arnold, and John Donne characterize the speaker and, in one case, the person to whom the speaker addresses. In “My Last Duchess” and “Dover Beach,” Browning and Arnold depict the nature of their speakers. While Browning exposes the Duke as pompous and controlling, Arnold portrays his speaker as pessimistic. Donne’s “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” also characterizes the speaker and his wife as having an emotional love. These characterizations help the poets to create a story involving multiple characters, although only one character speaks.

There are several poems written about love, romance, and lust during the sixteen and seventeenth century. All of these poems have a different style to them, but most share one theme; the goal to seduce their love. John Donne was no except to this common theme. Although Donne was raised in a devout Catholic household, his poetry would say he tried to commit a few sins in his lifetime, and even tried to have others to commit them with him. Some of his poems depict the chase of girl only to receive opposite feelings from her. An example of this is his poem, “The Flea.” Donne faces rejection when he is in the pursuit for his love, but Donne doesn’t accept it passively and aggressively continues his quest for her.

Donne’s poem is written in the traditional 14-line format of a sonnet, “which was the vogue… in England at the end of the sixteenth century” according to authors Kennedy and Gioia in Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry , Drama and Writing ( 574). Donne lived from 1572-1631 (Kennedy 744). “The sonnet owes much of its prestige to Petrarch,” (Kennedy 574) an Italian poet. “English poets …(eventually) worked out their own rhyme scheme,” (Kennedy 574) which would explain why this isn’t a true Patrarchan sonnet. Donne’s penned work naturally breaks his thoughts and the poem into three quatrains and a couplet. His thoughts come to a conclusion after lines 4, 8 and 14 with the use of periods, as well as a question mark for line 12, noting the end-stops. The rhyme scheme in American English is abba, abba, cddc ae, but if spoken with an English accent, the final couplet could reasonably be interpreted as aa, which would appear to be more likely.

The implications of the first few lines of the poem emit the notion that the poems text and word choice show the dilemma Donne felt on Good Friday,1613. He is stuck traveling, when in fact he should be praying and honoring the death and sacrifice of Christ. By implementing that feeling into the subject of the poem, Donne is able to exaggerate the struggle the subject is having about his deviation from God, which cripples him. Furthermore, at the time Donne wrote this poem, it is clear he was engulfed in the thought of his own sin and struggled to face God. Therefore, the subject in the poem acts as a martyr for which Donne can confess and repent by submerging the subject in a state of sin.

Donne transformed the love poetry he wrote in his early days, beginning in 1617 with the death of his wife Anne More, to religious poetry with a strong sense of awareness of death and its import. This poetic development from classical poetry to more personal poetry reflects the events that marked his own life, and can be traced throughout his poetry. This kind of personal and thereby

All love is fair if you trust the Love God with your all. Throughout this poetic piece, John Donne is speaking from the heart. The language presented is a sensation whom is loving, caring, adoring, and faithful. A past lover may have done him wrong and seems to ne reflected upon it. He speaks from the deepest of his soul, from a love so powerful that couldn't be. “Donne’s love poetry was written nearly four hundred years ago; yet one reason for its appeal is that it speaks to us as directly and urgently as if we overhear a present confidence.” (Poetry Foundation) The author mentions he has deep affections for a woman that does not reciprocate the same feelings. John Donne can not seem to conclude why the woman does not feel the same way about him if the woman has experienced love before. As hes speaking on his personal experiences it even gives off a sense of empathy towards the end of the

On the surface, Donne’s “To His Mistress Going to Bed” seems like a simple request to admire and charm his mistress into sex. However, his impressive background of theology, cosmology and law is embedded in a subtle fashion which causes the poem to be much more elaborate than what first meets the eye. Donne suffered a few losses during his years including the loss of jobs, imprisonment, still born children, and the eventual death of his wife. If his poetry is any attempt to use wit and mastery to make up for his social shortcomings, this poem certainly aids in redirecting his readers. In “To His Mistress Going to Bed”, Donne incorporates diction, allusions, similes and metaphors surrounding sex, religion and law in

Lastly, he compares his heart to a piece of glass (mirror) by saying “those pieces still, through they be not unite; and now as broken glasses show a hundred lesser faces, so my rags of heart can like, wish, and adore, but after one such love, can love no more.'; In this quote Donne show us that his heart has been shattered into a thousand pieces and that they are still in the place where his heart should be. Donne can never repair his broken heart; therefore, he will live in pain until he dies. In the last line of this quote, Donne says that once you have loved someone that deeply you can never feel love like that again.

The central theme, introduced quite early within the poem, is the helplessness of death. Throughout the poem the speaker belittles death and approaches it with such bravery and poise. Donne confronts death by saying it is not in any regard “mighty and dreadful” (2), but rather brings “much pleasure” (7). Death is personified in the poem, and in this regard, possess no greater power over man. The speaker of the poem is Donne himself. He uses his literary tools of rhetoric and poetic devices to belittle death. Throughout the poem, the speaker comes across as being slightly arrogant, but he refuses to show weakness. His arrogance shows that he is not afraid of death as he demands death not to be proud. Donne takes the association of death and sleep, and reinvents this comparison to a greater effect. He describes sleep as being “pictures” (5) of death and death is no more different or more frightening. He extends this metaphor throughout the poem. In the second last line of the poem he

Near the end of the poem, Donne makes an unlikely comparison between the couple and a draftsman's compass. This is one of his most famous metaphysical conceits because the two elements which are being compared appear completely different, and yet, amazingly, Donne is able to connect them. He explains that his wife is his "fixed foot" that leans towards him as he roams and straightens again as he returns, but remains his center. Her firmness is what makes his circle complete, "[a]nd makes [him] end where [he] begun"(line 36). The imagery of the circle and the spheres in this poem solidify the eternity of their love and the knowledge that the speaker will always return to the place where he began. Donne's comparisons create an image of celebration rather than mourning.

I shall now talk about how religion relates to Donne’s poetry. His life passed during a major change of religion in England the king wanted all control of the church so he could divorce his wife, he declared himself head of the Church of England. My first poem that relates to religion is ‘The Flea’ in this poem Donne is trying to convince a woman to sleep with him by using religion to sanctify him sleeping with her for example when he says ‘Where we almost, nay more, than married are…our marriage bed, and marriage temple is[2]’, he makes the bed seem holy and that g-d wants them to sleep together this may of reassured her as it connects g-d and the church together to make everything alright and holy . This poem proves that Donne is a very