What does the flea symbolize in the flea?
What does the flea symbolize in the flea?
John Donne’s poem, ‘The Flea’ is a metaphor for sex. The speaker shows a flea to a woman he wants to sleep with, and states that the flea has combined them into one by biting them both and sucking their blood.
What is the rhyme scheme of the flea?
Let’s start with the rhyme scheme: AABBCCDDD. These couplets (and one triplet at the end of the stanza) help you keep track of the speaker’s argument, which generally proceeds in two-line units.
What is the message of the flea by John Donne?
John Donne and A Summary of The Flea This poem is all about a woman’s denial and the argument used by the speaker to overcome that and persuade her to make love to him. If a flea can suck blood from them both and mingle the two in one, surely it’s not too much to ask for them to get together in similar fashion?
What is being compared in the flea?
It’s a three-letter word that starts with an “s” and ends with an “x.” He is making a comparison between the mixing of “blood” – or other fluids – in the sex act with the mingling of the blood inside the flea.
What is the form of the flea?
“The Flea” is made of three stanzas, each of which is nine lines long. The first six lines of each stanza are rhyming couplets; the final three lines are rhyming tercets. In the first six lines of each stanza, the poem alternates between lines of iambic tetrameter and lines of iambic pentameter.
How does Donne use symbolism to advance his themes in the flea?
Generally blood symbolizes life, and Donne uses blood to symbolize different experiences in life, from erotic passion to religious devotion. In “The Flea” (1633), a flea crawls over a pair of would-be lovers, biting and drawing blood from both.
What is the structure of the flea?
What kind of poem is the flea?
erotic metaphysical poem
“The Flea” is an erotic metaphysical poem (first published posthumously in 1633) by John Donne (1572–1631).
What is the tone of the poem the flea?
The tone of the poem is highly ironic, dramatic and absurdly amusing. Extravagant declarations of devotion and eternal fidelity which are typical found in love poetry are absent.
Why is The Flea a metaphysical poem?
The poem uses metaphysical conceits where the body of the flea is exaggerated and stretched to give a meaning out of it. When the flea bites his mistress and him then their blood is mingled inside the body of the flea.