The Flea by John Donne Essay -- The Flea John Donne Songs and Sonnets

The Flea by John Donne â€Å"The Flea†, a witty poem of seduction and conceit, taken from John Donne’s â€Å"Songs and Sonets† is the poem that I have chosen to compare to â€Å"Song†, another poem of John Donne’s where he is passionately pleading with his wife not to be disheartened about his departure abroad. Both poems which belong to â€Å" Songs and Sonets†, written around the time of the 16th century, show that their title suggests they are both short poems, following the traditional form of a sonnet, consisting of fourteen lines. However, they are not â€Å"songs† in the conventional sense we think of and none of them are written as a sonnet. In fact, Donne’s poems were intended for circulation around his local pub, â€Å"Lincoln’s Inn†, where he could impress his male friends with his bawdy poetic nature. â€Å" The Flea†, emphatically rejects the Petrarchan tradition of love poetry, where the woman is seen as a goddess, an object of desire worth worshipping by a man. Instead, Donne wrote poems that saw the earthy reality of sexual relations between a man and woman. The poem, whose historical convention probably started with Ovid, shows that it was common in Elizabethan times to envy a flea for its access to the female body. Donne throughout the poem makes references to the flea, presenting a conceit produced of wit, integrity and persuasion. The title, which presents the conceit, is in fact the structure of the poem, the entire poem depends on this conceit. At first, this is a puzzling image to the reader, it seems bizarre and inappropriate. However, as the poem continues, Donne’s argument does also, and we see how reality is conveyed by the vivid imagery of the flea. Donne uses a three-part syllogism in this poem whic... ...while, they will always have each other in each other’s hearts, and that they will never really be parted. His final argument of persuasion is that they don’t really need the physical presence, as long as there is the matter of trust then he will return to her once more. Overall, by the structure and language used in â€Å"Song†, the poem is very consoling and reassuring. Compared to â€Å"The Flea,† it is very different as the respect for the women the two poems are written for differ enormously. Indeed both poems are extremely clever and logical, with well thought out ideas for argument and persuasion, and are full of wit and clever analogies. However, â€Å"Song† shows a different side to John Donne’s character than â€Å"The Flea† presents, he appears more softer and respectful, consoling and loving than when he appears bawdy and obscene, shallow and disrespectful.