1. A 17th Century seduction poem
HOMEWORK TASK: 40 minutes
Annotate ideas around the poem, using this as a guide.
You can also make notes around the slides when appropriate
The Flea by John Donne
How does Donne present sexual, eros, love in The Flea?
A 17th Century seduction poem

2. Who was John Donne? John Donne (b. 1572 d. 1631)
English poet, satirist, lawyer, and priest, is now considered the preeminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His works are notable for their strong and sensual style and include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons. His poetry is noted for its vibrancy of language and inventiveness of metaphor.
John Donne was born into a Catholic family at a time when the practice of the Catholic religion was illegal. Religion played a large part in this life and he eventually went on to become an Anglican priest. He was later appointed the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral.

3. Fleas
Fleas were a common part of everyday life in the Tudor and Stuart periods. Due to a lack of regular washing or changing of clothes people and animals often suffered from insect bites from fleas and ticks.
Fleas can’t fly but jump from person to person, often taking blood from more than one source. The adult fleas only eat fresh blood.
Definition:
wingless insects with mouthparts adapted for piercing skin and sucking blood.
The flea body is hard, polished, and covered with many hairs and short spines directed backward, which also assist its movements on the host. The tough body is able to withstand great pressure, likely an adaptation to survive attempts to eliminate them by mashing or scratching. Even hard squeezing between the fingers is normally insufficient to kill a flea. It is possible to eliminate them by pressing individual fleas with adhesive tape or softened beeswax or by rolling a flea briskly between the fingers to disable it then crushing it between the fingernails. Fleas also can be drowned in water and may not survive direct contact with anti-flea pesticides.
The imagery of the flea provided a popular subject for love poetry throughout Europe in the sixteenth century, the poet envied the flea it’s freedom on his mistress’s body, or it’s death at her hands while in the ecstasy of it’s contact with her.
Donne varies the motif, turning the fact that the flea bites both the man and the woman into a seduction game.

4. Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the natural world. It is the study of being and reality. It asks fundamental questions such as: “Is there a God?” and “What is man’s place in the universe?” This study also includes questions of space, time, causality, existence, and possibility.
Metaphysical poetry is concerned with the whole experience of man, but the intelligence, learning and seriousness of the poets means that the poetry is about the profound areas of experience especially - about love, romantic and sensual; about man's relationship with God - the eternal perspective, and, to a less extent, about pleasure, learning and art.
A metaphysical conceit is a conceit where the objects of comparison have no apparent connection. For example, in George Herbert’s poem Praise, he compares God’s generosity to a bottle full of endless tears. Another example is John Donne’s poem The Flea.

5. Stanza 1 What is John Donne trying to achieve with this poem?
What reaction is he hoping for from the woman that he is talking to?
Why is he using the flea as a conceit for in this verse?
How successful do you think the metaphor is in this verse?
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

6. Stanza 1 How does Donne present sexual, eros, love in The Flea?
Useful quotations:
Highlight any quotations you think will be helpful for your essay
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
How does Donne present sexual, eros, love in The Flea?

7. Stanza 2
John Donne’s conceit has progressed in this verse. What does the flea now represent?
What signs can you see that the woman is not convinced by his argument?
How is the flea described in this verse?
What religious ideas are included in this verse?
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.

8. Stanza 2 How does Donne present sexual, eros, love in The Flea?
Useful quotations:
Highlight any quotations you think will be helpful for your essay
How does Donne present sexual, eros, love in The Flea?
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.

9. Stanza 3
The woman has killed the flea in between verses two and three. What is her argument?
How does the poet adapt his argument after the loss of the flea?
How has the poet’s argument gone full circle?
Having read the entire poem, how successful a conceit do you think the flea is for the purpose of seduction?
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.

10. Stanza 3 How does Donne present sexual, eros, love in The Flea?
Useful quotations:
Highlight any quotations you think will be helpful for your essay .
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.
How does Donne present sexual, eros, love in The Flea?

11. Extension:
websites
If you ask in the library, there are a collection of articles about ‘The Flea’ that you can read to develop some AO4 and AO5 ideas.
What is significant about this collection in relation to ‘The Flea’?
La Pace de Madame des Roches (1582), which includes poems in French, Spanish, Italian, Latin and Greek