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Name :- Goswami mahirpari
Class. :- M.A.sem - 1
Topic. :- Critique on Flea
Paper no. :- 1
Enrollment :- 2069108420180021
Number
Yer. :- 2017 - 19
E mail goswamimahirpari786@gmail
Submitted. :- S.B.Garedi English
Department.
Introdution
About poet :-
Dr.Samuel Johnson
Done painting by isaae Oliver
Born 22 January 1572[1]
London , England
Died 31 March 1631 (aged 58)
London, England
Occupation Poet, priest, lawyer
Nationality English
Alma mater Hart Hall, Oxford
University of Cambridge
Genre Satire, love poetry, elegy , sermons
Subject Love, sexuality , religion, death
Literary movement Metaphysical poetry
" metaphysical poetry "
Metaphysical poetry occupies a unique place in the history of English poetry. A group of poets emerged in the beginning of the seventeenth century, in the age of Milton or Jacobean age which tried to write poetry in altogether different way and their poetry come to be known as the Metaphysical poetry.
It was Dr. Samuel Johnson who for the first time used the term ‘metaphysical poetry’ for the poetry of John Donne and his followers. Since Donne was the pioneer, it is known as the school of Donne or The School of Metaphysical Poetry. Dr. Samuel Johnson while giving introduction to the life of Abraham Cowley used the term metaphysical poetry to identify the poetry of Donne and his followers. The poets who followed the style of John Donne are: Richard Crashaw, George Hurbert, Abraham Cowley and Andrew Marvell. These are the main metaphysical poets.
When Dr. Johnson used the term metaphysical poetry, it was in a negative sense , to criticise the poetry of Donne and his followers. But with the passing of the time the tone of the term was changed and it became a term of appraisal, giving merit to the School of Donne.
Definition of metaphysical poetry :-
""""" highly intellectualized poetry marked by bold and ingenious conceits, incongruous imagery, complexity and subtlety of thought, frequent use of paradox, and often by deliberate harshness or rigidity of expression """""
Origin of the metaphysical poetry :-
The term metaphysical poets was coined by the critic Samuel Johnson to describe a loose group of 17th-century English poets whose work was characterized by the inventive use of conceits , and by a greater emphasis on the spoken rather than lyrical quality of their verse. These poets were not formally affiliated and few were highly regarded until 20th century attention established their importance. Given the lack of coherence as a movement, and the diversity of style between poets, it has been suggested that calling them Baroque poets after their era might be more useful. Once the Metaphysical style was established, however, it was occasionally adopted by other and especially younger poets to fit appropriate circumstances.
"About John Donne " :-
He is considered the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets . His works are noted for their strong, sensual style and include sonnets , love poems, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams ,
elegies , songs, satires and sermons . His poetry is noted for its vibrancy of language and inventiveness of metaphor , especially compared to that of his contemporaries. Donne's style is characterised by abrupt openings and various paradoxes, ironies and dislocations. These features, along with his frequent dramatic or everyday speech rhythms, his tense syntax and his tough eloquence, were both a reaction against the smoothness of conventional Elizabethan poetry and an adaptation into English of European baroque and mannerist techniques. His early career was marked by poetry that bore immense knowledge of English society and he met that knowledge with sharp criticism. Another important theme in Donne's poetry is the idea of true religion, something that he spent much time considering and about which he often theorized. He wrote secular poems as well as erotic and love poems. He is particularly famous for his mastery of metaphysical conceits .
His writing style :-
His work has received much criticism over the years, especially concerning his metaphysical form. Donne is generally considered the most prominent member of the metaphysical poets , a phrase coined in 1781 by
Samuel Johnson , following a comment on Donne by
John Dryden .
Dryden had written of Donne in 1693:
He affects the metaphysics, not only in his satires, but in his amorous verses, where nature only should reign; and perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy, when he should engage their hearts, and entertain them with the softnesses of love."
In Life of Cowley (from Samuel Johnson's 1781 work of biography and criticism Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets ), Johnson refers to the beginning of the seventeenth century in which there
"appeared a race of writers that may be termed the metaphysical poets".
Donne's immediate successors in poetry therefore tended to regard his works with ambivalence,
with the
Neoclassical poets regarding his conceits as abuse of the metaphor .
Izaak Walton have wrote biography of
Donn in ( 1658 ) :
he returned not back into England till he had stayed some years, first in Italy , and then in Spain, where he made many useful observations of those countries, their laws and manner of government, and returned perfect in their languages.
— Izaak Walton
About poem :-
The flea MARK but this flea, and mark in this, How little that which thou deniest me is ; It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled be. Thou know'st that this cannot be said A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ; 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. O stay, three lives in one flea spare, Where we almost, yea, more than married are. This flea is you and I, and this Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is. Though parents grudge, and you, we're met, And cloister'd in these living walls of jet. Though use make you apt to kill me, Let not to that self-murder added be, And sacrilege, three sins in killing three. Cruel and sudden, hast thou since Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence? Wherein could this flea guilty be, Except in that drop which it suck'd from thee? Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou Find'st not thyself nor me the weaker now. '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.
Summary :-
The poet tell his be loved to lookef at the flea bef -ore them or to note “how little” is that thing that she denied him For the flea he has sicked firest his blood's then her blood's so that now in sides the flea they are mingles and that ming -
ling cannot be called
""" sin, or shame, or loss of maidenhead.”
The flea has join them tog ether in a way that,
“alas is more than we would do”
As his be lov move to killed the flea the poet said her hand's asking her to spare the 3 lives in the flea:
"his life #her life and #the flea’s ownlife""
the flea he says where their blo -
od is mingle they are almost married+no more than married+and the flea is their marrriage bed and marriage temple mixed into one Though their parents grudge their romane or tho ugh she will not make love to him they are neverthee
unit or cloister in the living wall -
s of the flea She was apt to kill him poet said but he asks that she not kill herself by killing the flea that contain -
ed her blood's he says'e that to kill the flea wooould be sacrilegeed
"" three sins in killing three ""”
“Cruel and sudden” the s poet calls his lover who has now killd the flea
“purplinged” her fingernail with the “blood of innocence” The speaker asks his lover what the flea"s sin is other than having suck. from each of them a drop of blood's He says that his belover replies that neither of them is less noble for having killed the flea
It is true he side and is this very fact that proved that her fears are false If she were to sleep with him “yield to me” she would lose no more honored than she losted when she kill's the flea
Analysis :-
John Donne’s poem "The Flea" is a complexity's yet simple explanted of a desired to for sex The poet use a flea as an argument as to why his beloved should engage -
ment in the sexualed act
In "1633" when the poem was writte -
n sex before marriaged would be consider a sin and that’s why the poet
was trying to convinced otherwise
The literal meaninged of the poem is about a little flea who sucksed blood 's from the port and his be -
lov which give the poet courage to reason with his be love about sex He claimed that what this flea has done has intertwin's them already and therefore the actual act of sex would not be consider sinfuled However she kill the flea meaninged that sleeping with him would make her more sinful than killinged the flea
the overall meaning of the poem's is expressed through the 3
stanzas of the poem As readers we get a conversationaled tone from stanza
* He is trying to explain how little the flea that she deniesed is and explained what this flea has done By sucking him first and then sucking her in this flea our two bloods mingl be Repetition of the word suck can al -
so be seeen as adding to the central theme of sex The speaker then clai-
ms that what this flea has done
cannot be called sin nor shame nor - loss of maidenhead which refers to virginity Donne ends off the first stanza by explaininged how the flea has joined them in a particular way which is more than we would do
By the openinged of stanza 2 the topic of marriage's is brought into the poet ' s argumented as the bel -
over wishes to kill the flea
He attempts to convince her not to
by saying this flea is you and i and this our marriage bed's and marriage temple is. which coveys a mess -
age that they are now marrid because they're blood is together inside this flea's Marriage also contribute's to the central theme of sex because marriage would no longered make sex sinfuled Therefore if the spea -
ker can convinc his belov that they are technically marries he can hold ho-
pe of receiving what’s desir Stanza two is also the turning point's Through another conversationaled tone Donne says though parent's grudge we are cloistered or secluded in the body 's of this flea and to not add self-murder to the equation There will be 3
sins in killing thee meaning's if she killd that one flea she not only kills it but herself and him
The beloved end's the argument probably out of annoyance by sim -
ply killing the flea causing Donne to call her cruel and sudden in stanza 3. In an efffort for justification's he ask why she killled the flea wherein could this flea's guilllty be beca use all it’s done is take one drop of bloood's from each of us However within her responded he concluded that her alleged fear of sin is false bec -
ause if she had sex with him it would be the same as the sin committ by killlling the flea
The way the poem is formatted also makes this poem great. The entire poem is made up of a combination of iambic tetrametered and iambic pentameter which is most commonly The author uses the last two lines of each stanza to show iambic's pentametered making the en -
tire poem a 4 then 5 stressed syllable line The last two lines being 5 stressed syllable linesed
The rhyme scheme in this particular poem follows an AABBCCDDD pattern which means that Donne rhymes the first 2 lines the second 2 lines the
3 two lines and the last three lines in each stanza Sound device's such as alliteration are used throughout the poem making the rhythm lucid like
sucked and sucks in stanza 1 marriage or marriage.
in stanza 2 and thou triumphst that thou in stanza 3
The entire poem can be seen as a big metaphor's as the flea is used to symbolized their love or sex The blood 's the flea hold inside of him is compared to a marriage bed and marriage temple The min gling of the blood also metaphoricallyed stan -
ds for mingling of sex There are a few symbol that stand out in this poem Marriage for one is essentially symb -olized Donne tries to make his argument better by saying this flea has basically married us because our blood is joined inside him Sex is also a symbol however is discretely spoken ofl His entire argument revolves around the act itself which he later explains would not be less sinful then killinged the flea Imagery is used through the flea who is also personified As reader we picture something so small being personified to have such significance to the author’s argument's Similes were found once in the last line of the poem "as this flea’s death took life from thee".
Overall Donne is conv eying a messageed that he would like to have sex with his beloved and it is not sinful which ironi. cally she agre -
es to as she commits a sin herself allowing Donne to conclude her fear was wastefuled The particular form and devices used such as figurative language's Alliteration's or the rhyme scheme help's the poem seem effortlesslyed written becccause you dont realiz ed those part abo ut the poem until you further reading Whi -
le the poem can be seen as a serious -
ed persuasions it also con oosists of humorous which make it perfectly logic
Conclusion :-
though the lover sug -
gest that he is in control that it is a matter of “when thou yield’st” some
scholars have noted that he is po -
werless to do anything until woman makes her descusion He merely utters his words of waorming but she can raise her hand and kill the flea similarly she can exxxercise her power by continuant to deny the man his des -
ired the Flea could take what it wantd with out stopp to wooo but the lover uses no forced be yond
force of argume -
ntHe has not ben success so far but we do not now what will happen .
Thank you so much
The end .......
