The 17th century marked a shift from an age of faith to an age of reason. Literature represents the turbulence in society, religion, and the realm of this period. Life for the English people reformed as religious hullabaloo and civil war shook the nation. These issues reformulated the role of individuals in society, perspectives of faith, and social structures in England. Writers of this period offer their own philosophies as resilient of the issues and influenced the masses. Specific examples of authors of this period who extant English issues and perceptions in their works are John Donne and John Milton.
John Donne (1572-1631) was an English poet and cleric in the Church of England. Donne was the third of six children. His father, also named John Donne, was of Welsh descent and a supervisor of the Ironmongers Company in the town of London. However, he avoided unsolicited government courtesy out of fear of persecution.
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Donne was educated privately however, there is no evidence to support the prevalent claim that he was taught by Jesuits. In 1583 at the age of 11, he started studies at Hart Hall, now Hertford College Oxford. After three years of studies there, Donne was admitted to the University of Cambridge, where he studied for an additional three years. Donne nonetheless could not acquire a degree from both institutes because of his Catholicism, since he refuses to take the Vow of autonomy required to accommodate.
Throughout and after his schooling, Donne spent much of his generous heritage on women, literature, pursuits and travel. By the age of 25 he was well equipped for the diplomatic career he appeared to be seeking. He was selected as head commissioner to the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. Sir Thomas Egerton and was acknowledged at Egerton's London house, Strand close to the bastion of Whitehall then the most significant societal center in England.
In metaphysical poetry if anyone’s name stands alive even today then it is of John Donne. Everybody knows that Donne is a metaphysical poet because every factor of metaphysical poetry exists in his poems. Every censor treasured the authority of John Donne in metaphysical poetry. He was the one, who formed new kind of poetry in those days when everyone was following the tradition. Donne’s poetry is notable but only metaphysics does not make it extraordinary. There are surely other elements, which are there in his poetry and make John Donne eminent among other metaphysical poets of his era.
John Donne’s poetry is aninquiring mix of paradoxes. At once divine and metaphysical, it is also deeply entrenched in the physicality of bodieslove as a physical, corporalinvolvement as well as a spiritual high. His bravura can often be startlingly basic, yet his metaphorsarecommonlyintricate, his use of prolonged metaphors requiring some vigilant unpacking.
“The Flea' is an erotic metaphysical poem first published in 1633. The Flea is amongst such an unusual love poem, where the poet uses a flea to divulge his carnal interest with his mistress.
The poem starts with the man trying to capture the complete attention of his beloved. He uses the word “Mark”, which is used to convey something very essential. He shows the flea and by epitomizing its act of sucking their blood, tries to show how frivolous her deprivation is. The insect has relished their blood and it is neither a sin nor a dishonor, so he questions the idea of the beloved about her refusing his innovations. The man compares the sucking of the blood and their intermingling the insect’s body to the sexual meetings of mortality.
The insect has relished the taste of them both and inflates with pleasure, whereas he is still in hunt of his interests and declares that it is not a sin or a disgrace to lose maidenhead. It is even a measly act than the one performed by the flea, as it could fuse their blood for its pleasure. John Donne epitomizes the insect and ascribes it pleasure and gratification, while sanguineous insects drink blood to endure.
The disclosure of the genuineness that the insect has certainly united their bloods is not liked by the woman and she tries to kill it. The man attributes “Holiness” to the flea by remarking that the act of the flea has made it their “marriage temple”. The mingling of three bloods also alludes to the Christian conception of three lives that exist in an individual, demonstrating that they have surpassed the humanly conditions of ritual, devotion, constraints, parents, etc. They are safely together within the walls of the flea.
The parents grudge indicated that the man has already tried to advance his motives, which is not liked by her parents who consider that a union should take place after the marriage rituals. He then returns to beseeching her to not kill the insect as it would be killing three lives at once. “Killing Three” refers to three forms, murder of the man, sacrilege of the holy being that unites them ” flea” and suicide of the beloved.
“This man excels in alluring his female conquests with his wit and acumen. In ‘The Flea’, his dispute that the woman should surrender sexually to him twists and turns in answer to her unheard words and concealed trial. He claims primarily that the flea represents the tiny honorable decision facing her (‘How little that which thou deny’st me is’) and then hastily adopts a less facetious tone, portentous that the flea in fact represents the great holiness of their sexual convention, because ‘we’re met and cosseted in these living walls of jet’. When the woman confounds him by killing the flea, its triviality, which is embedded in her ‘pitiless and sudden’ act, is the indication for the final twirl of his dispute ‘Just so much honor, when thou yield’st to me, Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee’. From a female point of view, the cleverly sacrilegious quarrel is imposing not so much for its minutiae as for its diligence. The phallic metaphors of the flea, which ‘pampered, swells with one blood made of two’, implies that the amount of cerebral vigor expended in the hunt is directly impartial to the substantial efforts that might follow the woman’s surrender. It may not be politically accurate, but it is highly erotic.”
Once again, using the initiative of snobbery, he describes in a very metaphysical approach the connection they have with each other using the flea as a core that is holding their lives within it. He tries to pursue her on by saying the “flea” is like their matrimony bed and matrimony temple, in which their affiliation is consecrated and nothing is immoral with it. He hopes she thinks that due to using that as a metaphor, she feels the clarity of the deed he wishes to consign and does not look at it as a sin or matter of ignominy. He extends the flea from just being the tradition of the marriage to it now being their ‘marriage bed’ or ‘marriage temple’.
“Donne fundamentally probes the prevailing, “male” sexuality that the text appears to be pushing the woman toward. In fact, the man in the poem assumes the position of the woman seduced rather than that of the invading flea, whose demeanor provides an average for his conflict. The man declares that he is “sucked first” and the vagueness of this “cannot be said a sin, or shame” refers to some extant to the man’s experiencing satisfaction by that sucking.” Very cunningly he plays with words where he says, “(And cloisters’ in these living walls of jet).”
Jet, is a deep glossy black stone. In this case, he is referring to the color of the flea. He generates sturdy metaphors in this line, by comparing a comatose black stone with the “living walls”.
She moves to kill the flea, and he aptly implies she would be killing him and additionally herself. He refers to her killing herself as suicide and mentions “sacrilege” if she were to do it, as she would be committing 3 sins at one go, taking his life, committing suicide and killing the flea.
Donne has used a lot of symbolism in the entirety of the poem. Throughout the poem, he’s used the flea as a symbol of their togetherness, and expands on it being their marriage bed. He alludes to the symbolism of the Holy Trinity when he talks about three things in one body. One of the very interesting modes of symbolism he has used is ‘blood’, particularly in the last stanza.
Blood symbolizes life and Donne has used it to symbolize erotic, infatuation and spiritual dedication. At last she crushes the fly, not paying any heed or notice to his advances on her. He has already mentioned “blood” of theirs being intermingled in the body of the flea, representing them being “one flesh”. He admonish her and asks her concerning the sin the poor flee had devoted other than the fact that the flea just sucked a little blood from them. It is worth mentioning here the job of the female in this poem. Her objections are never noted, just reacted to, and she makes a very powerful yet non-verbal testimonial by crushing the flea. Very fascinatingly the reader can see the conceits in which he first tries to show the flea being superior than the church, the sacred connection between a man and woman and then steadily showing the church and the affiliation being greater than just a mere flea. He has realized that she has not fallen for his urging; therefore he changes tactic and his dispute therein. He carries his conceit through, now giving her no motive not to sleep with him, he argues that killing the flea was an effortless thing, as she shows it did not damage them, he claims then docile to him would have just been as effortless and painless as killing the flea.
To summarize, this work is a metaphysical play with words, wherein themes such as yearn, religious metaphors, and mischievous scenery are being used. Donne has used words which allude to celestial aspects of living in that era which give more than one view on what he is essentially trying to say.
In conclusion, the poem uses a lot of spiritual imagery as it helps add a sort of authority to the poem, as Donne has publicized and argued that what they were about to do was not only supported by religion and God, but not doing it would be sacrilege too. The process of rhythmical conceit was used very ingeniously to broaden the flea to have many diverse meanings to it and add more color and humor to it. “Donne was the first to have the flea bite “both him and his mistress, thus making it a symbol not of the lover’s yearning but of the beloved union”. The flea becomes a union symbol because in its” mingling of bloods” it symbolizes the thought to take place during coition.
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