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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
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
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?