What kind of poem is the flea by John Donne?
An Analysis of Poem “The Flea” by John Donne The Flea is one of John Donne’s most popular erotic poems. It focuses on an insect that was a common nuisance in the Elizabethan period – the flea – and turns it into a sexual metaphor.
What is the meaning of the poem The Flea?
“The Flea” is a poem by the English poet John Donne, most likely written in the 1590s. In “The Flea,” the speaker tries to seduce his mistress with a surprising (and potentially gross) extended metaphor: both he and she have been bitten by the same flea, meaning their separate blood now mingles inside the flea’s body.
Why did Donne kill the flea?
Donne’s use of religious terms for the trivial act of killing a flea imparts a peculiar intensity and immediacy to his desire for physical union with his beloved. By the third stanza, the beloved has already killed the innocent flea. Yet, the innocent creature was guilty of no other crime except that of the sucking of their respective blood.
What is the first line of the flea by William Blake?
In the very first line of ‘The Flea,’ the poet-lover asks his beloved to observe the flea carefully. She should notice that first, it sucked his blood and then hers, and in this way, their blood mingles in its body, as they do in sexual intercourse. The flea has enjoyed union with her, without any courtship or marriage.
Why did John Donne write the flea?
John Donne wrote this poem when he was a young man, training to be a lawyer, so many scholars think it was written to impress his male friends. Later in his life, Donne became seriously involved in religion, eventually ending up as dean of St Paul's Cathedral, London, in 1621.
What is the purpose of the poem the flea?
'The Flea' is a 17th-century English poem by John Donne and uses a flea as a metaphor to explore the sexual union between a man and a woman. The speaker in the poem shows a flea to a young lady that has apparently bitten both of them.
Who wrote the poem the flea?
John DonneThe Flea / AuthorJohn Donne was an English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, who later became a cleric in the Church of England. Under royal patronage, he was made Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London. He is considered the preeminent representative of the metaphysical poets. Wikipedia
When did Donne write his poems?
Donne wrote most of his love lyrics, erotic verse, and some sacred poems in the 1590s, creating two major volumes of work: Satires and Songs and Sonnets. In 1598, after returning from a two-year naval expedition against Spain, Donne was appointed private secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton.
Why is the Flea a metaphysical poem?
The poem uses metaphysical conceits where the body of the flea is exaggerated and stretched to give a meaning out of it. When the flea bites his mistress and him then their blood is mingled inside the body of the flea.
What is the tone of the poem the flea?
The tone of the poem is highly ironic, dramatic and absurdly amusing. Extravagant declarations of devotion and eternal fidelity which are typical found in love poetry are absent.
What is the theme of The Flea?
Major Themes in “The Flea”: Love, sex, and seduction are the major themes crafted in the poem. The poet used a persuasive conceit of flea to show how effectively this tiny insect unites them by sucking their blood. Also, this mingling of their blood does not involve any sense of shame, sin, or guilt.
What poetic form is The Flea?
“The Flea” is made of three stanzas, each of which is nine lines long. The first six lines of each stanza are rhyming couplets; the final three lines are rhyming tercets. In the first six lines of each stanza, the poem alternates between lines of iambic tetrameter and lines of iambic pentameter.
What is Donne's most famous poem?
Death Be Not Proud is the most famous poem of John Donne with its opening lines especially being extremely popular. Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
How do you pronounce John Donne's last name?
0:020:59How to Pronounce "John Donne" - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipYa andan santana.MoreYa andan santana.
Who is father of metaphysical?
Parmenides is the father of metaphysics. Parmenides is a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher whose work survives today in fragments.
What kind of poem is The Flea?
"The Flea" is an erotic metaphysical poem (first published posthumously in 1633) by John Donne (1572–1631).
What are the images used in the poem The Flea?
The tiny insect is the primary image of the poem, through which all the metaphors and puns that Donne is famous for are woven. He takes advantage of the contrast between the small size and general insignificance of the flea and the monumental importance that the speaker ascribes to it.
How does The Flea represent three lives in one describe?
He asks her to spare the three lives inside the flea. For example his life, her life and the flea's life. He says that their mingled blood inside the flea means they are more than the married couple and the flea is their marriage bed and marriage temple.
How does The Flea present desire?
“The Flea” As a Representative of Sex: As this poem is about physical intimacy, the poet uses “flea” as an extended metaphor to demonstrate his desire to have intimacy. At the outset, he says that their blood is mixed in the body of the flea, implying that they have already been made one in the body of the tiny insect.
When was the Flea poem written?
“The Flea” was likely written in the 1590s, during an explosion of love poetry. Following the publication of Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella in 1590—a sonnet sequence focusing on the unreciprocated love between a male figure (Astrophil) and his beloved (Stella)—similar sonnet sequences became very popular. Several dozen were published in the following years. Love poetry became the most prestigious and exciting kind of poetry for English poets to write. And poets competed with each other to develop more elaborate, more beautiful ways of expressing their love.
What does the flea mean in the book?
In “The Flea,” the speaker tries to seduce his mistress with a surprising (and potentially gross) extended metaphor: both he and she have been bitten by the same flea, meaning their separate blood now mingles inside the flea’s body. Having sex is no different, the speaker argues, and no more dishonorable.
How many words are in the poem "The Flea"?
Unlock all 389 words of this analysis of Enjambment in “The Flea,” and get the poetic device analyses for every poem we cover.
What is the Flea poem about?
“The Flea” is a poem of seduction, but the speaker takes an unusual approach to getting his lady into bed. Instead of praising her beauty or promising her happiness, he instead insists that virginity is unimportant and that its loss will not be a significant source of shame or dishonor. In doing so, he pushes against the values of his society, which prized female virginity and pressured women to preserve it until marriage. “The Flea” thus tries to create a space for sexual pleasure outside the boundaries of marriage.
How many words are in the end stopped line in The Flea?
Unlock all 226 words of this analysis of End-Stopped Line in “The Flea,” and get the poetic device analyses for every poem we cover.
How many enjambments are there in the Flea poem?
For instance, the first stanza contains two enjambments , in lines 1 and 5, while the third stanza contains four, in lines 19, 21, 23, and 26. (We've noted line 1 as being enjambed because its full thought spills over onto line 2; despite the comma, you can't grasp the entire meaning of line 1 without the line that follows. The same is true of line 21, and perhaps also line 26.)
What is the setting of the poem The Flea?
In the poem, the speaker directly addresses his mistress, trying to convince her to sleep with him. From this, it is reasonable to assume that “The Flea” is part of a larger conversation. There is history between the speaker and his mistress: he has tried before, and failed before, to convince her to sleep with him. In this sense, the poem takes place in the context of this relationship.
Why does Donne say she must not kill the flea?
She must not kill the flea, for the act would not merely be cruelty to which she is used. It will be a sin, a sacrilege. It would be a triple murder. Donne’s use of religious terms for the trivial act of killing a flea imparts a peculiar intensity and immediacy to his desire for physical union with his beloved.
Who wrote the poem "The Flea"?
The Flea by John Donne. ‘The Flea’ by John Donne is the poet’s most famous poem. In it, he uses one of his brilliant conceits to convince his love to sleep with him. However, her gestures and attitudes are brought out by references to them on the part of the lover. In the very first line of ‘The Flea,’ the poet-lover asks his beloved to observe ...
What does the poem "The Flea" mean?
The poet in the poem, ‘The Flea’ by John Donne, asks his beloved to observe the flea carefully and mark that what she denies to him is not of much significance. The flea sucked her blood and then sucked his. In this way, in its body, their respective blood are mixed up. She must acknowledge that this mingling of their blood in the body of the flea is neither sin, nor shame, nor loss of virginity.
What is the basic conceit in The Flea?
Basic Conceit in The Flea. In of his most renowned conceits, Donne compares the body of the flea to a temple and a marriage-bed. As the beloved makes ready to kill the flea, the lover asks her to stay and not to kill the poor creature. Their two types of blood have been united together in its body, as they are united through marriage in a church. ...
What is the originality of the poem "The Flea"?
John Donne’s Originality. The poem, ‘The Flea’ by John Donne is one of the best lyrics of Donne’s poems. Flea was a very popular subject for ribald and amatory poetry during the Renaissance. In this respect, the Renaissance poets imitated Ovid who has a poem on the subject.
What did Donne demonstrate about love?
He has demolished the conventional Petrarchan attitude towards love, as well as the false notions of honor and chastity, and demonstrated that even true, spiritual love has its basis in physical union.
What is Donne's originality?
Donne’s originality lies in the fact that his interest is not primarily in the flea, but in the exploration of love-relationship. He emphasizes the need for physical union, but physical love merges with the spiritual.
What is the Flea poem about?
The Flea is one of John Donne’s most popular erotic poems. It focuses on an insect that was a common nuisance in the Elizabethan period – the flea – and turns it into a sexual metaphor. That such an irritating creature could be used to such good effect is a poetic triumph but it’s still not certain ...
Who spots the blood filled flea, she kills it?
The male speaker spots the blood filled flea, she kills it; end of pursuit?
What Is The Meaning of The Flea?
The Flea is a poem that is all about one man trying to get a woman to have sex with him. The woman is probably a virgin. In his attempt to persuade his would be lover the man focuses on a flea, a parasite that has sucked blood from them both.
Why is the Flea so difficult to scan?
The Flea is a difficult poem to scan easily because it has a variable metre (meter in American English) and Donne was well known ‘for not keeping of accent’ which basically means he didn’t like to produce steady, plodding iambic lines. He preferred to vary the metre.
Why did John Donne write this poem?
John Donne wrote this poem when a young man, training to be a lawyer, so many scholars think it was written to impress his male friends. Later on in his life Donne became seriously involved in religion, eventually ending up as dean of St Paul’s cathedral, London, in 1621. This poem wasn’t published until 1633, two years after Donne’s death.
How many rhyming couplets are there in the Flea?
The Flea is structured to mirror the three protagonists, flea, man and woman, so there are three rhyming couplets, a triplet in each stanza and three stanzas. In the first stanza the speaker is cool and logical and uses mostly plain, positive language to highlight the flea’s actions. The second stanza develops the argument by introducing religious ...
Did Donne succeed in his sexual conquest?
That such an irritating creature could be used to such good effect is a poetic triumph but it’s still not certain that, for all of Donne’s wit and ‘ribald humour’, the speaker succeeded in his sexual conquest.
Who wrote the summary of one of Donne’s most celebrated poems?
A summary of one of Donne’s most celebrated poems by Dr Oliver Tearle
What is the problem with the poem "As the woman goes to kill the flea"?
The problem, of course, is that society – not to mention the girl’s parents – aren’t keen on a woman like the poem’s addressee going to bed with a man before she’s married. As the woman goes to kill the flea, the poet protests:
What is the conceit in The Flea?
As with many poems by John Donne and the Metaphysical Poets, there’s an elaborate conceit (a sort of extended metaphor yoking together deliberately incongruous ideas) used by the poet throughout ‘The Flea’ to help him make his ‘argument’. (We say more about the poetic conceit here .)
What does the woman feel about killing the flea?
The woman doesn’t listen to the man’s request not to kill the flea, and squashes it beneath her fingernail. She feels no guilt or shame over ending the flea’s life, any more than the flea felt shame in sucking blood from her body. In that case (the poet reasons, seductively), the woman would feel no shame if she allowed herself to be seduced by the poet. It is ‘false’ to fear that one will lose a part of oneself in giving oneself to another person: if the woman yields to her lover’s seductive charms, she will lose no more honour than she did over killing the flea.
How many lives does a flea have?
The flea contains three lives – its own, plus the lives (or blood) of the two lovers – and this has joined the man and woman together in something that is virtually (‘almost’) marriage, and indeed is in some ways ‘more than’ marriage, because it is more physically intimate (their blood has been shared through the medium of the flea’s body). As with much of Donne’s poetry, the physical and the spiritual are conflated: the flea’s body, in containing the lovers’ blood, has become a ‘marriage temple’: their two bodies have been contained or ‘cloistered’ (a holy word indeed) within the flea’s body.
Who is Oliver Tearle?
The author of this article, Dr Oliver Tearle, is a literary critic and lecturer in English at Loughborough University. He is the author of, among others, The Secret Library: A Book-Lovers’ Journey Through Curiosities of History and The Great War, The Waste Land and the Modernist Long Poem.
Does "thee" rhyme with "flea"?
‘Me’ and ‘thee’, of course, both rhyme with ‘flea’, a word that never appears as a rhyme at the end of any line of the poem.
What is the Flea poem about?
One of his earlier poems, “The Flea,” demonstrates his ability to take a controlling metaphor and adapt it to unusual circumstances. “The Flea” is made up of three nine-line stanzas following an aabbccddd rhyme scheme.
How many lines are there in the poem "The Flea"?
“The Flea” is made up of three nine- line stanzas following an aabbccddd rhyme scheme. He begins the poem by asking the young woman to “Mark this flea” (line 1) which has bitten and sucked blood from both himself ...
What does the flea say in the book "Though parents grudge and you"?
There is a hint that he has already attempted to gain the lady’s favors and failed, either through her response or that of her parents: “Though parents grudge, and you,” (line 14) he says, suggesting that even her opinion does not matter anymore. The flea has already “cloister’d” them within its body’s “walls of jet” (line 15, possibly also suggesting that they are alone together in a dark room). The woman’s disdain for him and his suit becomes more apparent as he claims she is “apt” to kill him (line 16), following her habit of killing fleas, but he offers that she should refrain from harming the flea because in so doing she would add suicide (“Let not to that self-murder added be” line 17) by destroying the vessel holding her blood. In fact, he says, she would be guilty of “sacrilege, three sins in killing three” (line 18) since his own blood is there too.
What does the speaker argue about the fleas?
Besides arguing for the sanctity of the flea’s life , the speaker is also arguing that he and the lady have already bypassed the usual vows of fidelity and ceremony of marriage; thus, he pushes toward his point that the two of them have already been joined as one in the flea, so there is no harm in joining their bodies in sexual love.
Why do fleas hopping from themselves to a young lady make love?
The speaker uses the occasion of a flea hopping from himself to a young lady as an excuse to argue that the two of them should make love. Since in the flea their blood is mixed together, he says that they have already been made as one in the body of the flea. Besides, the flea pricked her and got what it wanted without having to woo her. The flea’s bite and mingling of their bloods is not considered a sin, so why should their love-making?
