The Flea

Question 1

What era was The Flea written in?

Answer 1

Jacobean era

Question 2

What group of poets was John Donne in?

Answer 2

Metaphysical poets, these poems experimented with new ways of writing poems, in The Flea the speaker is using their blood being jibbed inside the flea as a metaphor for the way they should now be sexually united

Question 3

What was the view of sex at the time?

Answer 3

‘A mingling of the blood’, hence the the speaker feeling that the two of them are already united after the grow has bitten both of them

Question 4

What was sex before marriage seen as?

Answer 4

Sinful and Donne focused more on the physical side of relationships which would have been shocking for the audience

Question 5

What was society like at the time?

Answer 5

Very patriarchal, the woman is viewed as a sexual object to be conquered by the man

Question 6

What is the rhyme scheme?

Answer 6

Rhyming couplets, reflects the way he wants to be joined to her and his persistent nature

Question 7

What is the rhythm

Answer 7

Alternating iambic tetrameter/pentameter