John Donne - The Flea and Batter my Heart
Good morning/afternoon to the members of the ETA.
The ETA should keep John Donne’s poetry on the curriculum because his works are noted for their strong and bodily style.
“The Flea” by John Donne should be studied because John Donne is a very unique metaphysical poet. Donne is exceptionally good at creating unusual unions between different elements to illustrate his point and form a persuasive argument in his poems. In “The Flea”, we find the use of conceit where the Flea is thought to be their marriage temple and bed because it sucks a tiny drop of blood from the lover’s and the beloved’s body. According to the poet it means that they are married. Here he says, “Me it sucked first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;’. The killing of the flea will mean destroying three lives which are of the poet, his beloved and the insect. It will also be an act of sacrilege because a temple will be destroyed. He says that the beloved should surrender her body to the poet because she will lose just a little honour as the life she has lost by a drop of her blood having been sucked by the flea.
“The Flea” contributes to society as he pushes the boundaries by saying that it is not a big deal to have pre-marital sex. He is pushing the boundaries by denying the thoughts of his society at the time. If women had sex with tons of men they were known as prostitutes, but if men did the same thing people call them kings. Donne also says in the first stanza "and this alas is more than we would do". This emphasizes that pre-marital sex isn't a big deal for either of them but in Donne’s days it was considered a very big thing. This promotes equality as he is saying that it is not a big deal for either of them. Through a close analysis of “The Flea” I have learnt that the speaker notices a flea and points it out to the woman he loves. The flea has bitten them both, and now their blood is mixed inside the flea. He says that no one would consider it a sin or a
The ETA should keep John Donne’s poetry on the curriculum because his works are noted for their strong and bodily style.
“The Flea” by John Donne should be studied because John Donne is a very unique metaphysical poet. Donne is exceptionally good at creating unusual unions between different elements to illustrate his point and form a persuasive argument in his poems. In “The Flea”, we find the use of conceit where the Flea is thought to be their marriage temple and bed because it sucks a tiny drop of blood from the lover’s and the beloved’s body. According to the poet it means that they are married. Here he says, “Me it sucked first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;’. The killing of the flea will mean destroying three lives which are of the poet, his beloved and the insect. It will also be an act of sacrilege because a temple will be destroyed. He says that the beloved should surrender her body to the poet because she will lose just a little honour as the life she has lost by a drop of her blood having been sucked by the flea.
“The Flea” contributes to society as he pushes the boundaries by saying that it is not a big deal to have pre-marital sex. He is pushing the boundaries by denying the thoughts of his society at the time. If women had sex with tons of men they were known as prostitutes, but if men did the same thing people call them kings. Donne also says in the first stanza "and this alas is more than we would do". This emphasizes that pre-marital sex isn't a big deal for either of them but in Donne’s days it was considered a very big thing. This promotes equality as he is saying that it is not a big deal for either of them. Through a close analysis of “The Flea” I have learnt that the speaker notices a flea and points it out to the woman he loves. The flea has bitten them both, and now their blood is mixed inside the flea. He says that no one would consider it a sin or a