The Little Buggers Are Setting Bloody Fireworks Off Again
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The Flea Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay
Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay
Welcome to the land of symbols, imagery, and wordplay. Before yous travel any further, delight know that there may be some thorny bookish terminology ahead. Never fearfulness, Shmoop is hither. Cheque out our "How to Read a Poem" section for a glossary of terms.
The Flea
The tiny insect is the primary prototype of the poem, through which all the metaphors and puns that Donne is famous for are woven. He takes advantage of the dissimilarity betwixt the small size and general insignificance of the flea and the awe-inspiring importance that the speaker ascribes to it. Of grade, this is all meant to exist very humorous and witty, from the author'due south perspective if not the speaker's.
- Line i: He begins the verse form by directing the attention of his beloved to the flea. Donne uses the device of apostrophe past speaking to a person outside the poem who cannot respond.
- Line 8: He personifies the flea equally if it were a "pamper'd" person, avid on a feast of blood. Here nosotros get the oh-so-succulent image of a flea swelling with blood.
- Line 10: The speaker uses metaphor to equate blood with life: the flea contains three lives, its ain, his, and hers.
- Line 20: Oh, no! She kills the flea, but the grandiose rhetoric about "the blood of innocence" contrasts with the triviality of a dot of blood on a fingernail.
Marriage and Organized religion
The flea graduates from household pest to religious symbol: what a promotion! The poem has religious overtones all over the place. Though we have the sneaking suspicion that the speaker just wants to have sex with the woman, he tries to argue that he wants to consecrate a holy and sacred religious ritual: marriage, the union of two lives. The flea represents this union considering it contains the blood of both of them. He even tries to charge the adult female of attempting not i only three mortal sins when she raises her hand to crush the piddling bugger.
- Line 4: "Blood" is used both literally and figuratively throughout the poem, which makes information technology a kind of pun. On the literal level, that flea really does contain two people's claret. But metaphorically, when two people procreate we oft talk about "mixing bloodlines," and Donne plays with this double meaning.
- Line 10: The idea that the flea contains 3 lives is also metaphorical. The speaker thinks of "blood" as a metonym for "essence" or "life." It is a role of a creature that represents another aspect of it. Besides, the epitome of three-in-one alludes to the Holy Trinity, in which the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are independent in one unity.
- Lines xi-13: Their so-called "marriage" is an extended metaphor that stems from the pun on two kinds of "claret": literal blood and family relations. Mixing of bloodlines is what happens through marriage.
- Lines 14-15: He extends the metaphor even further, saying that neither she nor her parents would approve of the spousal relationship. The flea is compared to a church or "cloister" with black walls, in which the marriage ceremony takes place.
- Lines 16-18: Returning to the metaphor that the flea contains their lives, the speaker accuses her of trying to commit a mortal sin by killing the flea. She would be murdering him and committing suicide herself. Also, she would desecrate the establishment of marriage, by cracking the "marriage temple."
Sex
When it comes downwardly to information technology, this poem is almost trying to get a woman into bed. We would hate to be simplistic and have abroad from all the rhetorical fireworks that Donne sets off in order to distract us, simply sometimes you lot've got to phone call a spade a spade. The speaker never comes out and says he wants to have sex with the adult female, but that's precisely what a "marriage bed" is for. He doesn't want to scare her off past reminding her of the blunt truth that having sexual activity with him would, in fact, result in a loss of guiltlessness.
- Line 2: You lot can become away with so much in a poem by but using vague language. The phrase "that which" has very sexual overtones. We know which that he's talking about.
- Line seven: The "enjoyment" of the flea is a pun. The flea literally "enjoys" her blood, but to the speaker, information technology too "enjoys" her in the erotic style that he would similar to "enjoy" her.
- Line 25: "Faux fears" is an example of alliteration that highlights her concern about the loss of chastity.
- Lines 26-27: "Yield'st" is a small pun. He wants her to "yield" to the (twisted!) logic of his argument, only he likewise wants her to "yield" to him...in bed. Yep, we're serious. Likewise, he uses a simile that compares the preservation of her life when the flea dies to the preservation of her award after she has given in to him.
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Source: https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/poetry/the-flea/analysis/symbols-imagery-wordplay
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