The Sun Rising Essay

Submitted By DevenBhatia1
Words: 601
Pages: 3

“The Flea” is a long poem by John Donne contains three characters: the flee, the narrator, and his lover. Then entire poem has three stanzas and twenty seven lines, and in the entire poem, Donne utilizes rhyming couplets at the end of each line. The speaker tells his love to look at the flea, who has sucked his blood and her blood. Therefore, he states that their blood is blended together inside the flea. His beloved then attempts to kill the flea, but he holds her hand back asking her to spare the flea’s life. He states that the flea is now a symbol of their bond. The flea is their “marriage bed, and marriage temple is.” He then states that their relationship is like Romeo and Juiliet’s relationship as their parents were against their marriage. According to him, if she killed the flea, she would be committing three sins. The third stanza creates a shift. The speaker claims that by “purpling” her fingernail with the flea’s blood, she is “cruel and sudden.” He then makes a very bold statement as he tells her that her fears about sex and the relationship are false. He tells her that she would have just as much honor when she would have sex with him – “yield to me” - than when she killed the flea. What Donne attempts to accentuate is that women have such high standards and make a huge deal out of giving up their body to a man. However, John Donne also accentuates the love that occurs beyond the physical world: metaphysical love. He does this in many of his poems such as “The Good-Morrow.” What makes Donne’s poem so unique is that he uses the most obtuse image – the flea - to express metaphysical love. Donne essentially flirts through the image of a flea. Donne over exaggerates the value of the fly in the second stanza as He details that he and his beloved are fighting over whether they will engage in premarital sex, and Donne writes how his lover will break a physical bond between them, but she will not simply “yield to him.” He hints at sex yet he never really refers to sex. He gives love a humorous meaning as he utilizes the silly image of the