The Flea Flashcards
Who wrote the poem?
John Donne
What type of poem is this?
Metaphysical poem
What is metaphysical poetry
Aims to express emotion through complex argument and elaborate conceit (extended metaphor)
What is the rhyme scheme of the poem
AABBCCDDD
What themes are explored in this poem?
- Lust, sex, seduction
- Sex and marriage
- Sex and the church
What quotations in this poem mirror quotations in the great Gatsby
- ‘swells with one blood made of two’
- ‘Swollen…..along its monstrous length’ chapter 4
- ‘We almost, yea more than married are’
-‘forever wed his unattainable visions to her perishable breath’ chapter 6
How many stanzas are in the poem and what does this echo?
3, this echoes trinity
What does metaphysical poetry do?
• Asks serious questions about the nature of existence and the universe
• Uses paradoxes and puns
• Use religious imagery
• Carpe diem themes
• Scientific, medical and legal imagery
• colloquial language (informal communication)
• Original and witty
The comparison of a flea to a marriage temple would have been considered to be what?
Sacrilegious but reveals his playful tone
What do fleas symbolize? And how is it elevated in the poem?
• Considered dirty insects due to their association with diseases
• Used as symbols of erotica due to their free access to the female body
• Elevated to the status of a minister who joins them in the marriage
• His body is the temple/cloister
What is the form/structure of the poem and what is the significance of this
• 3 stanzas each nine lines long
• rhyming couplets (AABBCC) and a tercet (DDD)
• Repetition of three could signify Donne focuses on the union of three as well as the holy trinity
What is the purpose of the regularity of the rhyme scheme
Conveys reasonability of the speakers argument
What is the meter used in the poem and how is it used?
• Iambic pentameter and iambic tetrameter
• First line of the stanza is a tetrameter followed by pentameter
• Tercet consists of one line of tetrameter and two lines of pentameter
What is the purpose of the alteration between the meters
• Shows the familiarity and discontent between the speaker and his lover
• Mirrors the gulf between the poems heavy themes and the speakers playful argument
What figure of speech is used in the following sentences
• “Mark but”
• “Bloods mingled”
• Spondee (two stressed syllables)
• The roughness of the metre suggests the spontaneity of the speech, he seems to be improvising
What is the function of caesura in the poem
• It gives a meditative feel as though the speaker is pausing to consider his argument
• Gives a controversial feel, it breaks as if a reply is due
What figure of speech is used in the following sentences and give their purpose.
• “And pampered swells with one blood/made of two”
• “hast thou since/Purpled thy nail”
• Enjambement
• In the first sentence, the engorgement of the flea is mirrored by the elongated phrase
• In the second sentence, it creates the impression of the speaker sudden rush to convince which marks a contrast to the poems slow, plodding beginning
What is the function of repetition in the poem
• Rhetorical device used throughout the poem
• Repeats the allusion to the holy trinity in lines 10,12 and 18 to communicate the idea that the flea is a holy creature
• Significant in naturalising or normalising the idea so that it seems plausible
• Repeats ‘sucks’ in line 3 so it can interpreted as a double entendre creating a comedic tone
How is conceit used in the poem
• Flea is a taboo because it’s a bodily parasite just as sex was relatively a taboo in Elizabethan times
• Unlikely object to be used for the basis of conceit as the poem exists within a long European tradition of insects swarming the necks and underskirts of ladies, exciting the male observer who does not have access to those locations.
• A popular flea poem that preceded Donne’s was ‘Carmen de pulcis’
What figure of speech is used in the following sentence and what is its function.
“ This flea is you and I”
• Synecdoche
• To kill the flea would be to kill all of them since the flea has sucked this blood
What figure of speech is attributed to the term holy trinity in this poem
Allusion
What figure of speech is used in the following sentences ad give their purposes
• “Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is”
• “how false, fears be”
• Alliteration
• The speaker uses the determiner “our” to stress that this is their own version of marriage which would in reality face many obstacles
• The alliteration in the second sentence shows the deceptive nature of fear in his main argument in the last stanza
• The sibilance in the second stanza also creates a slithery, snakelike sound alluding to the figure of the devil as snake in the story of Adam and Eve, linking the speakers attempt to the persuasion of the devil
What themes are explored in this poem
• Sex and lust
• Marriage and religion
What are the similarities and differences between this poem and the scrutiny
Similarities
• Selfish attitudes towards women
• Both poems use twisted logic
• Both try and make a case for something
• Both prom deal with lust
• Both are witty
Differences
• The speaker in this poem is trying to sleep with a woman, in the scrutiny, the speaker has already slept with the woman
• In this poem, the speaker seems to be in a relationship with the woman he addresses, In the scrutiny, the speaker seems to barely know the mistress
• The scrutiny deals with heavy subjects such as sun and religion whereas the scrutiny is more lighter
What are the similarities and differences between this poem and To his coy mistress
Similarities
• Both are metaphysical poems
• Deal with heavy profound subjects
• Use double entendres- “sucked” and “swell”, “vegetable love should grow”
Differences
• To his coy mistress, the speaker flatters the woman, while in this poem, the speaker sticks to his argument
• To his coy mistress used to much symbolism
• Faster pace of ‘To his coy mistress’ mirrors supposed lack of time
