Introducing 

Prezi AI.

Your new presentation assistant.

Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.

Loading…
Transcript

Swells. Sexual language

Lexical choice of pampered. What are the connotations of this word?

John Donne The Flea

Metre: iambic pentameter

iambic tetrameter.

parenthesis. What does this add to the tone

The flea and the erotic.

Ovid 43BC AD 17/18. In what way do you think fleas are erotic?

Rhyme scheme: AA BB CC DD

Imperatives

Mark but this flea, and mark in this,

How little that which thou deniest me is;

It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,

And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;

Thou know’st that this cannot be said

A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead,

Yet this enjoys before it woo,

And pampered swells with one blood made of two,

And this, alas, is more than we would do.

Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,

Where we almost, nay more than married are.

This flea is you and I, and this

Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is;

Though parents grudge, and you, w'are met,

And cloistered in these living walls of jet.

Though use make you apt to kill me,

Let not to that, self-murder added be,

And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.

Cruel and sudden, hast thou since

Purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence?

Wherein could this flea guilty be,

Except in that drop which it sucked from thee?

Yet thou triumph’st, and say'st that thou

Find’st not thy self, nor me the weaker now;

’Tis true; then learn how false, fears be:

Just so much honor, when thou yield’st to me,

Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee.

vulgar language.

Sexual connotations

Look carefully at the logic of this line. Remember what Donne wants out of this argument. Think about the transition from "almost" to "more than" What has been left out?

Religious language. John

was born a Catholic

and converted to

Protestantism

A reference to the crucifixion

Features of Metaphysical Poetry.

Intellectually rigorous, scholastic, dialectical, subtle .

Argumentative – using logic, or paradox in persuasion. The arguments may be seductive but not entirely logical on closer inspection. Donne trained as a lawyer

Concentrated complex and difficult thought

Dramatic, with abrupt aggressive opening but modulating tones.

Style – concise, succinct, epigrammatic

Use of conceits; lots of comparisons of expected concepts with unusual, unexpected things or images called conceits or extended metaphors.

Deals with dichotomies, dualities, paradoxes, antithesis in a dialectic manner

Body and soul (corporal and spiritual)

Time and eternity (finite and infinite)

Real (concrete) and the ideal (abstract)

Carnal (profane) and divine (sacred) love

Sin and redemption

Emotion (passion) and Reason (logic)

Donne resolves everything into a unity;

a) the oneness of lovers,

b) the self-sufficiency of lovers,

c) the image of the circle – cycles – perfection

This poem was written in the 17th Century. Would a modern reader see this differently?

Is this line romantic?

Another imperative. What is the effect

Argument. Trace how it develops in the poem. The argument is certainly seductive. Do you think it would work? Which parts do you think are not entirely logical on closer inspection?

Learn more about creating dynamic, engaging presentations with Prezi