英语论文代写 The Representation Of God
In life, people use things to express an emotional feel in certain situations. In this given case, that thing would be poetry. At times poetry has been proven to capture someone's feelings immensely. It does that by the correct usage of words, usually metaphorical words. A 27 line poem can express to its readers a story and theme, where it would take a novel more work. In John Donne's "The Flea" he uses a flea to symbolize sex between himself and his "love". John talks about the mixture of their blood to convey his message. As the poem is further read, the lady he refers to grows an understanding of what he wants.
This poem is not like many because it does not have an even amount of lines. In fact, it has 27 lines as referred earlier. The metrical scheme goes from iambic tetrameter to iambic pentameter. Lines are split into a group of four then five, then four and so on. The rhyme scheme used in each stanza is basically the same. They rhyme AABBCCDDD. There is no doubt that each specific detail does not help with the poems feel and your understanding of it. The poet uses imagery to help with the complexity of the poem.
The first quatrain started the expression of his feelings for his "love" and what he wanted to do with her. It was not established if he loved the woman or not, but his "love" will be used in representation of the woman. The poet began by him saying "Mark this flea..." which simply
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Meant, let's begin by using the flea. In the second line, "How little that which thou deny'st me is", he expresses how minuscule what she denies him is in comparison to the flea. His "love" doesn't care for what he wants as to why she denies him. The poet tries very hard to show the woman she needs to lighten up. "It sucked me first, and now sucks thee; And in this flea our two bloods mingled be" (3-4). The poet gets excited by the thought of his and the woman's blood coming together. Their bloods mingled like milk and coffee.
In the next quatrain, lines 5-9, we are no longer oblivious to what the poet is denied of, sex. "Thou know'st that this cannot be said; A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead"(5-6). He makes a comparison to the mixing of their blood. He says, no one would think the mixing of blood inside the flea to be a sin or shameful. Mainhead means virginity, the woman is not a virgin but as losing your virginity means losing your innocence, the woman would lose her innocence by having sex with him. He then uses this as a metaphor for the mixing of their bodily fluids. So, simply he's saying if they had sex no one would consider it to be shameful. "Yet this enjoys before it woo; And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two; And this, alas! is more than we would do" (7-9). The poet quarrels that the flea gets to enjoy her but he doesn't. In a way it is implied that he is jealous of the flea. The poet uses good imagery so that the woman would get a good sense of what the flea was doing.
英语论文代写 The Representation Of God
英语论文代写 The Representation Of God
Continuing to the next quatrain, lines 10-13, the poet mentions marriage. "O stay, three lives in one flea spare; Where we almost, yea, more than married are" (10-11). It is believed that the woman wanted to kill the flea. The poet wanted his "love" to spare the life of the flea because it represented their marriage. This is where it is realized that the two were not married. "This flea
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is you and I, and this; Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is" (12-13). The flea contained both of their blood; it was a temple in which their marriage was constructed. In a way, this has a religious feel because to Christians, the body is a temple and the representation of god.
In this quatrain, the history of the two was explained, lines 14-18. "Though parents grudge, and you, we're met ;And cloister'd in these living walls of jet" (14-16). "Though use make you apt to kill me; Let not to that self-murder added be ; And sacrilege, three sins in killing three" (14-18). The woman's parents do not approve of her and the poet being together. Not only do the parents not want them to be together, the woman has doubts. The woman is not too fond of him, which he says would lead to her wanting to kill him. Normally we kill bugs with no problem, but in this case, the woman would be committing three sins. The sins murder, suicide and sacrilege. Sacrilege would be her disrespecting their faith.
In the second to last quatrain, lines 19-22, the woman killed the flea. All three act of sin were committed. "Cruel and sudden, hast thou since; Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?" (19-20) The poet calls what the woman has done cruel and hasty. She killed an innocent thing. The flea has died but still it doesn't seem anything severe has happened. Only thing would be the staining of her fingers purple. Wherein could this flea guilty be; Except in that drop which it suck'd from thee?" (21-22) The poet goes into detail on the fact that the flea was innocent. The question on how the flea was guilty was asked.
The concluding quatrain, the woman has won against the flea and feels she has won against the poet's plea. "Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou; Find'st not thyself nor me the weaker now" (23-24). The poet said previously if the woman killed the flea it would be killing
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both of them. Being that the woman has done so and nothing changed in reference to her strength, his plea seems to have been a bit of "bull". "'Tis true; then learn how false fears be; Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me; Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee" (25-27). Even though he says that his argument was bull, he states it was a part of the plan. He tries to say that having sex with him would not be such of a bad thing. He hopes she realizes that she would lose as much respect if she had sex with him as she lost strength killing the flea, none. Sadly the poem comes to a halt, the end, so we cannot find out what the woman decided. It is now left to our imagination to finish.
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Work Cited
Donne, John. "The Flea." The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012. 1038. Print.
Bostwick, Rose. Essay on John Donne's: "Death Be Not Proud." The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012. 813. Print.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "The Flea Analysis". Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 5 Nov. 2012.
英语论文代写 The Representation Of God