Flea was a very popular subject for ribald and amatory poetry during the Renaissance. III. Throughout the poem he compels his beloved for physical love. and find homework help for other John Donne's Songs and Sonnets questions at eNotes He beats it to death and then beats it some more. Social Restrictions Another underlying theme of the poem is the social restrictions that prohibit the freedom of physical love. The Flea by John Donne. Posthumous Poetry: John Donne's ''The Flea'' was published in 1633, two years after Donne's death. John Donne’s “The Indifferent”: Critical… “The Indifferent” by John Donne is a relatively simple love poem in comparison to his other, more complicated works. ‘The Flea’ is a rather unconventional love poem written by John Donne in the 1590’s. The poet in the poem, The Flea by John Donne, asks his beloved to observe the flea carefully and mark that what she denies to him is not of much significance. Repetition is a rhetorical device. His purpose: trying to persuade her to come to bed with him. Donne’s most popular poem The Flea is famous for extraordinary uses of Imagery. John Donne was born in 1572 to a London merchant and his wife. Donne wrote a wide range of social satire, sermons, holy sonnets, elegies, and love poems throughout his lifetime, and he is perhaps best known for the similarities between his erotic poetry and his religious poetry.Much of his work, including "The Sun Rising," was published after his death in the 1633 collection Songs and Sonnets. II. Sonnet: A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem in which the same idea runs throughout the poem. The bloods of the lover and beloved have been united together in its body as they are united through marriage in a church. II and III only. Fleas were a popular subject for ribald humour during the Renaissance.The creatures were everywhere in both real life and in erotic poetry (inspired by the writing of the Roman poet Ovid) – their ability to freely roam ladies’ flesh making them the envy of John Donne’s poetic narrator as well as many others. The situation, in which we find the poem, is that of a man (Mr. Donne), addressing a woman (believed to be his lover). Stanza two contains several prominent literary devices. (John Donne, Sonnet 10) She is all states, and all princes I, Nothing else is. 'The Flea' is a 17th-century English poem by John Donne and uses a flea as a metaphor to explore the sexual union between a man and a woman. The situation, in which we find the poem, is that of a man (Mr. Donne), addressing a woman (believed to be his lover). In the first stanza, through one sophisticated conceit, John Donne plays with gender. His purpose: trying to persuade her to come to bed with him. So its body is a temple in which they have been married. Here is the poem, followed by a short summary and analysis of it. In this respect, the Renaissance poets imitated Ovid who has a poem on the subject. This stanza begins with “Marke but this flea, and marke in this,” punish this flea, and punish only this flea. In this sonnet, John Donne … John Donne’s poem, "The Flea" is a complex yet simple explanation of a desire for sex.
Donne’s most popular poem The Flea is famous for extraordinary uses of Imagery.