THE FLEA

Summary: Acts as the seducer- asking her to surrender her virginity

Plays with the number 3

Reflects the idea of meaning through structure which is clearly different from the English
Persona is grounded but remains above
Humanist light hearted
Presented in a conversational style as if dropped into conversation. As if there is no shame
supported by the rhyme and structure
Flea is used as a conceit suggests a seductive and cunning view
Couplets- as if already united
Dramatic effect
Caesura elevates the idea of the union
Persuasive series of couplets
Flea is part of the union as the third part
Closed of
Sex was dangerous
Manipulative Flea is the symbol of their union and she crushes their union
She plays the guilt card as if he is making her feel guilty for killing the flea
o But he changes the argument in the last three lines suggesting that if it is no big deal
to lose her virginity as it is no big deal to have killed the flea
o Changes position to get his way intended to be absurd
Argument is presented within the couplet
o Follows through with argument with the conceit
o Presents logical argument female rejects argument, similar to other poems.
Form: Dramatic change: Especially in argument Rhetoric
Immediacy of something happening
o lack of clich but use of flea as a conceit is unique, no common ideas.
More seduction, more lust, less love.

TO HIS MISTRESS GOING TO BED

Summary: Companion poem to the flea. Poem asking his mistresses to sleep with him.

Persuasion and sense of urgency

Use of double entendre as if erection however he sees sex as an honourable act
Its only fair that he has her
Donne utilizes blazons, an example of his wit
Elevates idea of bed as if to manipulate his exaggerated conceits
Compares her an angel Mahomets paradise with 72 virgins - In Islam, the concept of 72
virgins (houri) refers to an aspect of Jannah (Paradise).
Planting his mark on the lady like a flag
Contemporary conceits
Paradise land of liberty where it is not crowded
Paradoxical bonded to her makes her free
Does she really undress herself or is this part of Donnes imagination
FEMINIST READING: No female voice, no suggestion that shes naked. He is betraying
himself with seduction
Continuous flow- couplets coming together, a symbol of their union.

THE SUN RISING

Summary: Carries on from the idea of the Good Morrow Sun shining on the world (them
as they become the centre). Sun interrupts the persona and his lover during sex.

Playful, tongue in cheek, annoyed

Uses conceit of the sun apostrophe, a repute to the sun
The sun is the centre of the universe, interrupting them during sex. During sex, they should
be the ones at the centre of the universe.
Parodies the style of an (AUBADE)
Direct rebukes
Bother other people but not him
Subject to the natural of life and time however love should not be affected so trivially
Trimeter lines
How could he destroy the sun with a wink
Use of hyperbole, realizes the ridiculousness of closing eyes
Third stanza composed out of short emphatic
Sets the scene for Donnes lyrical revisionism.

LOVES ALCHEMY
Summary: Analogy of alchemy is used as a central conceit to give readers a new perspective about
love and its experience

Rejection of the idealistic Petrarchan and Platonic mystery of love the theories proposed
by those in the Elizabethan era.
Sour with skepticism, negative, cynical, anger, pessimism Personas tone reflects these.
Fraudulence and deceit
Alchemy is as real and as ridiculous and perhaps even as impractical as alchemy
o Ridicules Platonic love.
o Mirrors the ecstasy where there is an intimate relation that is promoted by physical
intimacy
Satiric sets tone for the poem
Alliteration in Deeper diggd Donnes wit allows for more sexual and carnal
interpretations questioning if true happiness lies in the relationship.
Lines 3 and 4, with repetition of personal pronouns contrasts with the personal pleasures of
sexual intimacy
There is no definite answer to what love is
OH Proclamation of concluding
Iamic pentameter contrast with Iambic trimester: provides a rhythmic break as if sudden
recognition of disillusion.
Pregnant pot Personification -> A mockery of Platonic love
o Draws comparison between pot of gold and pregnancy
The searchof eternal happiness does not exist
Oxymoronic highlights how ridiculous it seems why anyone would want to understand
love.
Use of winter and summer juxtaposition cannot find the lasting pleasures in physical
respect since relationship turns out to be cold and short
Persuasive repetition of our
Vain bubbles shadow pay waste of time searching for non-existent pleasures. Bubble is
a glimpse
Bridegrooms play Sexual implications? Momentary pleasures of getting married to
suggest that the honeymoon period does not last.
tis not the bodies marry, but the minds
o Reference to spiritual love
No man should hope to find a mind in a woman
Mummy possesd
o Derogates women
o Mindless walking bodies like the Egyptian type,
o The opposite of what she was before marriage and before possession
o Maternal instincts?
Is this Donnes way of dealing with rejection? Strike a reader to have never known rejection
those who claim to search for spiritual love only want it for the physical pleasures.
All in all Donnes proclamation of the inexistence of pure spiritual love

Uses analogy of alchemic research and spiritual love and then he proceeds to attack rival
poets by drawing parallels between alchemy and platonic theory
o Feminists reading his attitude towards love and womanhood are brutal
Emphasis on the complex nature of love that love is both of the mind and the body
Oscillation between lines suggests substance and not palliative

THE GOOD MORROW

Summary: 7 lines could reflect the 7 days of creation - Biblical reference Spiritual awakening of
their love

Eternality Focus on their love and not the aspect of their desire
First two lines describe of the insignificant of everything prior to their love
Everything before was trivial and considered past pleasures the physical, like
everything was a dream before he found god.
Focus is each other
There is no control when they are in love
Spondee- Double paradox
Contemporary conceits of his time are used
Finding new things without affecting the natural state
Anaphora
Physical world they create is more important than what is happening outside
The internal rhyme and oral harmony derives an image of ecstasy
Without extreme temperatures, the body becomes the microcosm of the universe
Conceit: they are each their own hemisphere so when united, love becomes universal the
body
Proto chemistry and alchemy is used here as well
Caesuras Sacrifice the rhythm of the iambic pentameter to develop a conversational tone
natural.
True love does not die
o Love so alike that none can slacken, none can die no sense of worry if love is
absolutely true.
o Not ownership but rather quality
Expansion of the physical world but also the mental horizons are expanding
o New World Not America but the one they create from their union
o Shift away from his objectification of women
Donne ends on weak verbs as if they are of little importance. Is he being hyperbolic and
idealistic on purpose?

A VALEDICTION FORBIDDING MOURNING

Summary: Persona is will be away from lover but reassures her that they have a higher form
of love (spiritual) and physical is not necessary

Parallel to Shakespeares Sonnet 116 let not there be marriage to true minds
Makes the association of high priests in love
Surrendering soul to god and dying with dignity
There comes a point separating the body from the soul
Love will happen without fuss
Conveys feelings without explicit blasphemy of their pleasure
Elevates their love to something just physical
Contemporary conceits of earthquakes Renaissance belief of the control of the spheres
Why should they fear things that do not need worrying about
Innocence in trepidation
Beneath the moon, the subject will decay because they have become too dependent on the
physical and not the spiritual aspects of their love
Focus is narrowed in onto the couple
Purification of spiritual love by marriage
Personal reassures that he will not miss the physical
Criticism of how love can be considered
Dont get the same sense of seriousness in tone maybe because of religious connotations
Does he move away from hyperbolic love (Petrarch etc.)
Still linked control through lines and rhythm by regular iambic tetrameter ABAB
o As if staying together but there is a separation
o but balanced controlled regularity original conceits. No fluffy romantic clich
o Cynical feminist: Rooted at home. Domestic. Convinces her to remain where she is
Conceit of the compass used very contemporary. Although they may not be attached they
will still be connected spirituality
Assurance of marriage as infinity as eternal nature of the circle (ring) eternality of love.

THE CANONIZATION
Summary: Addressed to someone who has criticism of their relationship

Displayed through regularity in rhythm and iambic trimester

Immortalisation
Dramatic monologue to stop criticisng the love of someone and just allow them to love
Repetiing in rhyme in first and final lines of the stanza suggests that their love frames the
stanzas
Occupy yourself with something else
Reinforces that this love is hurting no one
Parody of hyperbole in the second line of the second stanza. He is exaggerating to make his
point
Playful impatience
Abundance of rhetorical questions reinforces the fact that his passions affect no body else
Cynical pursuits
Physical is important for spiritual love
Lustful, like fruit flies during the summer
Sexual passions are complementary like the predator vs the bird of peace
Reborn through their love
Resurrection through sexual union
Use of hyperbole to emphasize that their love is so great, people will write about it
To canonize something To make saint and to consummate their love
Juxtaposition between us and you expanding his audience
True love is rare
People will talk about their love through sacrifice
Last line, how great their love becomes.

THE ECSTASY
Summary: Contrast between Valediction lack of importance of the physical aspect of love.
Metaphysical experience of love, rather than the physicality of sex.

Unity of souls - Builds on the Platonic concept but also a criticism

Rapture- Body becomes incapable of sensation - highlighted by the souls processes:
o 1. Soul leaves
o 2. Soul intertwines
o 3. Soul enters

Pure spiritual love can exist through the bonds of souls, through the establishment of bodies

Prepares the reader for the discussion of sex - pastoral setting

o Imagery of dying flower
o Renaissance symbol for faith and truth
o Beginnings of the connection of the soul
o Spiritual and metaphysical union of love

Relates to nature using various symbols, water, body parts. As if preparing for a sequence.
o Reflections are offspring to spiritual union
o Fusion of the souls but also the body emphasises importance

Presents dilemma of further pursuing a physical relationship

o Reflections are offspring to spiritual union
o Exclusive activity - as if those in love can understand the language that the soul
speaks

Persuasive: As if the other person would benefit from their love.

o Carnally? Metaphysically?
o They were not focused on the physical aspect or sex is not the motivation of their
love

Union of two souls that are not self sufficient

Forms a parallel between nature and humans - mixing of two souls is likened to pollination
of sorts.

The better soul is created when the two souls are in love
o Likened to alchemy/experiment:
o Made of original products but creation is suggested to be better.
o Uses metaphors of alloy creation to suggest that physical desire does not make their
love less impure

Distinct shift in tone

o Emphasis clear in repetition of our, we - suggests inclusive, plural verse of the body
and soul
o BUT! The body is not our soul and vice versa
o Justifies that we thank our body for giving us the opportunity to love

Physical consummation is needed as a channel for the souls to intertwine

o Further justification of heavens influence in the air - to back up bodys influence of
the soul.
Fusion of the souls but also the body emphasises importance
o Hints towards the notion of procreation - pregnant mother and child
o Imperatives

The soul without the body is unable to interact without the world
o Metaphorical encouragement of physical fulfilment
o Love grows in the soul, body is our book.
o Vaguely ironic - presents argument that love is pure, yet still contemplates the
physical.
o Soul without the body is imprisoning the love

Poem ends with carnal enjoyment - questions personas intentions from the beginning
o Appreciation of purity of love in the metaphysical sense?
o Invitation through arguing the importance of sex?
o More scientific than the flea paradoxical, more serious tone
o Like a thesis logical argument, the third person or each other?

Alternating rhyme scheme and indented lines - suggests that spiritual union and physical
fulfilment is of equal importance
o Is this a seduction poem? Or is this Donnes argument that sex is the result of true
love and spiritual union
o Regardless, he makes this poem and appreciation of both. Extended use of conceit
and tone
o Makes links back to Christianity - plays with the term ecstasy as a religious and
philosophical term.
o Personas narration - argument - reflection
o Through imagery and conceit - contrasting beliefs suggest that it is metaphysical
o Tetrameter lines reflect natural union

3 Structures 1 continuous. this one, (less effective) and three parts.

HOLY SONNETS: XIV

Summary: Conflict in himself God, Himself and the lover (Holy Trinity)

Moves away from Catholicism and Church of England

Physically abused- Mortification of the flesh
Love for God is captured
Takes idea but struggles to let God into his life
Personal conflict between physical and spiritual love in order to be pure with God
Exemplified by hard plosive sounds

Paradoxical He needs to be enslaved by God as God needs to take him to purify him yet
there is a metaphorical sense of God to enter him to become chaste and liberated
Blends the Italian and Spenserain sonnet as if lack of conform to sonnet structure as if
neither satisfies him

|JOHN DONNE POETRY ANTHOLOGY|

YU RONG TENG