Parmar Dipali K.Roll No: 30Topic: Unit 4 ‘The Flea’M.A. Sem. 1Batch: 2015-’17Email Id: dipaliparmar247@gmail.comDepartment of English (M.K.B.U.)

The Renaissance Literature

Metaphysical Poetry ‘Meta’ means ‘After’. Metaphysical means ‘After the Physical’. Metaphysics deals with the questions that can’t be explained

by science. Metaphysical poetry is highly intellectual. There is a use of strange imaginary and frequent paradox could

be seen. Metaphysical poems are lyric poems. Which contains extremely complicated thought.

Donne’s Imagination John Donne is a pioneer of Metaphysical poetry. His works are noted for their strong, sensual style. His poetry is noted for its vibrancy of language and

inventiveness of metaphor. Donne's early career was also notable for his erotic poetry,

especially his elegies, in which he employed unconventional metaphors, such as a flea biting two lovers being compared to sex.

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Donne’s ImaginationContinue……..

Towards the end of his life Donne wrote works that challenged death, and the fear that it inspired in many men, on the grounds of his belief that those who die are sent to Heaven to live eternally.

One example of this challenge is his Holy Sonnet X, Death Be Not Proud.

The Flea The Flea is an erotic metaphysical poem by

John Donne (1572–1631). The exact date of its composition is unknown.

The poem uses the conceit of a flea, which has sucked blood from the male speaker and his female lover, to serve as an extended metaphor for the relationship between them.

The speaker tries to convince a lady to sleep with him, arguing that if their blood mingling in the flea is innocent, then sexual mingling would also be innocent.

Donne is able to hint at the sensual without clearly referring to sex, using images such as the flea (line 8);

“ And pampered swells with one blood made of two,”

This evokes the idea of a creation. The speaker complains (line 9);

”And this, alas, is more than we would do.” He holds the flea up in the second stanza

saying that “Our marriage bed, and marriage

temple is;” He argues that by killing the flea, she would

be killing herself, himself, and the flea itself “ And sacrilege, three sins in killing

three.” The lady, in the third stanza, kills the flea,

presumably rejecting the speaker's advances.

He then claims she will lose no more honor when she decides to sleep with him than she did when she killed the flea.

References https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flea_%28poem

%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Donne http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/donne/

section3.rhtml http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175764

http://www.gradesaver.com/donne-poems/study-guide/section1/

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