NAME : MAHIDA BHUMIKA PRAKASHBHAI
M A SEM -1
ROLL NUMBER : 5
ENROLLMENT NUMBER :3069206420200021
PAPER -1 LITERATURE OF THE ELIZABETHAN AND RESTORATION PERIOD
UNIT : 4 (METAPHYSICAL POETRY)
TOPIC: COMPARISON BETWEEN " "THE FLEA" AND "TO HIS COY MISTRESS"
⚫ POET INTRODUCTION ⚫
⚫ John Donne ⚫
John Donne was an English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, who later became a cleric in the Church of England. Under royal patronage, he was made Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London .He is considered the preeminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His poetical works are noted for their metaphorical and sensual style and include sonnets, love poems, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, and satires. He is also known for his sermons.
Despite his great education and poetic talents, Donne lived in poverty for several years, relying heavily on wealthy friends. He spent much of the money he inherited during and after his education on womanising, literature, pastimes, and travel. In 1601, Donne secretly married Anne More, with whom he had twelve children. In 1615 he was ordained deacon and then Anglican priest, although he did not want to take Holy Orders and only did so because the king ordered it. He also served as a member of Parliament in 1601 and in 1614.
⚫ ANDREW MARVELL⚫
Andrew Marvell has been a source of mystery for scholars due to the lack of personal information about his life. However, there are some facts that remain. Andrew Marvell was born 1621 in the Yorkshire town of Hull, where his father was a lecturer at Holy Trinity Church and master of the Charterhouse . At an amazing age of twelve, Marvell began to study at Trinity College in Cambridge . At one point he attempted to convert to Roman Catholicism, but his father seems to have intervened and prevented him from actualizing that. Ultimately, he would stay in college until his father drowned in the Humber, mentioned in his famous poem “To His Coy Mistress,” in 1641 . This seemed to mark a new chapter in Marvell’s life, because it was at this point in the 1640’s that he traveled to France, Italy, Holland, and Spain . All in all, this movement abroad meant that he avoided being involved in the English Civil War .
⚫"THE FLEA"
BY JOHN DONNE
"The Flea" is an erotic metaphysical poem by John Donne . The exact date of its composition is unknown, but it is probable that Donne wrote this poem in the 1590s when he was a young law student at Lincoln's Inn, before he became a respected religious figure as Dean of St Paul's Cathedral. The poem uses the conceit of a flea, which has sucked blood from the male speaker and his female lover, to serve as an extended metaphor for the relationship between them. The speaker tries to convince a lady to sleep with him, arguing that if their blood mingling in the flea is innocent, then sexual mingling would also be innocent. His argument hinges on the belief that bodily fluids mix during sexual intercourse.
According to Laurence Perrine, this poem, along with many other of Donne's poems, solidifies his place in the literary movement, creating what is now known as Metaphysical poetry. Although the term was not found until after his death, it is still widely used and will continue to be traced back to work such as "The Flea".
⚫Summary
Look at this flea and you'll see how small the thing that you deny me really is. It bit me first and now it bites you. In the flea, our two bloods are mingled together. You know that this isn’t sinful or shameful; it’s not a loss of virginity. And yet the flea gets to enjoy your blood without courting you first, and it grows fat digesting our combined blood. And that is more than we are allowed to do.
Wait, don’t kill the flea and kill us with it! In the flea’s body, we are almost, no, more than, married. The flea is you and me. It is our marriage bed, our wedding chapel. Though our parents’ disapprove, we are safe within these dark, living walls. Though you may want to kill me, do not add suicide and sacrilege to your list of sins: three sins will come from killing the flea.
Cruel and unpredictable woman, have you stained your nails purple with the flea’s innocent blood? The flea is guilty of nothing but sucking a drop of blood from you. Yet you exalt in your victory over the flea and say that neither you nor I are weaker for killing it. That’s true enough and you should learn from that how false your fears are. You will lose as much honor when you give your virginity to me as this flea’s death took from you.The speaker of “The Flea” is thus unusually ambitious. He seeks not only to seduce his mistress, but also to defy and perhaps remake social norms around sexuality. You might wonder how sincere the speaker is in advancing this proposal it is awfully convenient that changing these mores would also fulfill his desires in this moment. Though “The Flea” makes radical proposals about sexuality, questions about the speaker’s sincerity cut down the force of those proposals and so too does the fact that the mistress kills the flea. She, at least, is unimpressed by the speaker’s arguments.
⚫ " TO HIS COY MISTRESS " BY ANDREW MARVELL
“To His Coy Mistress” is a metaphysical poem in which the speaker attempts to persuade his resistant lover that they should have sexual intercourse. He explains that if they had all the time in the world, he would have no problem with their relationship moving this slowly. However, he goes on to explain, they are mortal, and once they die they will be unable to be intimate together. The poem appears to serve dual purposes: first, to persuade the mistress to love, and second, to comment on mortality in its inevitability and grotesqueness. It is the latter objective which adds the philosophical aspect to this love poem.
This poem is admired for its metaphysical imagery. Metaphysical poetry was primarily known for the use of extended metaphor and conceit, as well as unlikely comparisons between abstract and worldly ideas. The term “metaphysical” was applied to a small group of 17th century poets, Marvell among them. The poems tended to have some philosophical bases, and this combined with experimental stylistic aspects helped to characterize them as metaphysical.
“To His Coy Mistress” is written in iambic tetrameter, and rhymes in couplets . It has been recognized as one of his most famous poems, and there is speculation as to whether or not 20th century Modernist poet T.S. Eliot was responding to Marvell in his famous poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” Clearly, Marvell’s work has continued to have an impact on literature, especially posthumously.
⚫ summary
Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress is a typical metaphysical love poem. The originality of the Metaphysical theme and the metaphysical technique deserve a special attention from the readers. Marvell is one of the exquisite poets in metaphysical verses for his wit, interesting argumentative skill, suggestive way of writing and marvelously usage of metaphysical conceits. His most eminent poem "To His Coy Mistress" which illuminate some of the most ascertained trails of metaphysical way of writing in this piece of literary art.
In the first place the poem beards out the typical precision of metaphysical poetry. The thought of the poem is very deep and serious but while compressed within a confined range. With the blend of these characteristics a fine piece of metaphysical literary art came to audience.
Secondly, the poem is replete with some extraordinary metaphysical conceits. From instance such expressions as vegetable love, time winged chariot, desert of vast eternity, have been given the status of some of the most marvelous metaphysical conceits. These imageries are considered highly adorable in the realm of metaphysics.
Thirdly, the intellectual aspect of metaphysical poetry is fully revealed in the poem. Marvell's wit is diverting and deep which has enriched the poem with the rare gift of intellectual reflectiveness. For instance there is found one of the most witty and well thought out expression, when the poet mentions that after the death of his beloved worms shell it all the fleshes of her body, this imagery is very witty, at the same time grotesque.
Finally, in the entire poem Marvell's use of some of the most extraordinary metaphysical imageries deserve our attention, to highlight the fact that he has no time. Marvell has used the image of Desert of Vast Eternity, Time Winged Chariot etc. At the same time the imageries such as vegetable love, iron gates of life, amorous bird of prey, become some highly successful metaphysical imageries.
Thus conclude with last words saying that brilliantly use of wit and intellect in the piece of metaphysical poetry "To His Coy Mistress" is definitely catch the attention of intellectual classes. The literary art of startling conceits and allusions, originality of thought, perfect blend of emotional intensity along with ironic wit ascertain the poem a metaphysical petition.
⚫ Comparison between "To his Coy Mistress" and " The Flea "
The Flea and To His Coy Mistress are two poems written by poets living during the Renaissance Period. To His Coy Mistress was written by Andrew Marvell and The Flea was written by John Donne. Both of these poets were well-educated 'metaphysical poets', and these poems illustrate metaphysical concerns, highly abstract and theoretical ideas, that the poets would have been interested in. Both poems are based around the same idea of trying to reason with a 'mistress' as to why they should give up their virginity to the poet.
There is a similar theme running through both of the poems, in which both mistresses are refusing to partake in sexual intercourse with both of the poets. The way in which both poets present their argument is quite different as Marvell is writing from a perspective from which he is depicting his mistress as being 'coy', and essentially, mean, in refusing him sex, and Donne is comparing the blood lost by a flea bite to the blood that would be united during sex. Marvell immediately makes clear his thoughts in the poem when he says, "Had we but world enough, and time This coyness, Lady were no crime", he is conveying the 'carpe diem' idea that there is not enough time for her to be 'coy' and refuse him sexual intercourse and he justifies this thought when he suggests when she is dead, in ?thy marble vault?, and ?worms shall try that long preserved virginity?. He is using the idea of worms crawling all over and in her corpse as a way of saying that the worms are going to take her virginity if she waits until death. Donne justifies his bid for her virginity in a much longer and more methodical way, he uses the idea of the flea taking her blood and mixing it with his, ?It sucked me first, and now sucks thee?, and then...
⚫ love in The Flea and To His Coy Mistress
Compare the ways John Donne in his poem The Flea and Andrew Marvell
in his poem To his Coy Mistress present the theme of love.
Donne and Marvell’s poems have both similarities and differences, as
they both present the theme of love in an unconventional way and dwell
on it superficially. This can be seen by the way in which both authors
show their views on love, though are clearly just using them as
attempts to seduce their mistresses, who are clearly reluctant. Taking
this into account, I feel that these “love poems” are more about lust
than love and are more focussed on the writer’s efforts of seduction.
Both poems are one sided dialogues between the poet and his mistress;
They do, however, differ in the ways in which they try to portray
their feelings on the topic, with Donne’s “The Flea”, depicting him as
comparing sexual intercourse with the way in which his blood is
mingled with that of his mistress in a flea, which has bitten both of
them. By doing this, he is incorporating 17th Century principles, such
as the belief that sexual intercourse involved the mingling of the two
bloods, and constantly refers to the flea, in an attempt to persuade
his mistress.
Marvell, however, introduces a hypothetical situation to argue his
case, with the central statement that he uses to bring his mistress
round to his line of thought being “Carpe Diem.” This derives from Latin and translates “Seize the Day,” with Marvell using it to
emphasise that time is against them. The difference here, between the
two poems, is that Donne is saying that they’ve already had sex in the
flea, and therefore the whole affair is no longer a big deal, while Marvell is suggesting a sense of...... middle of paper ...
...erious note than Marvell, however, by using some strong biblical imagery to show his mistress that, by killing the flea she has
committed a sin and, if she realises this, she has shown that she feels intercourse is no big deal.
Overall, I feel that, rather than being “love” poems, these are both
superficial examples of love, which are actually implicated on lust and seduction. A factor which supports this theory is that Donne doesn’t even mention love throughout the entire course of his poem,
while Marvell uses love to show the extent of his feelings for his mistress and, even then, admits that it is merely vegetable love,which is a basic concept of love being no more than reproduction, and
therefore sex. I feel that Marvell’s poem can also, however, be
associated with making the most of life, as he clearly argues this
point in “To his Coy Mistress.”
lady of the poem is refusing to make love to the narrator. Marvell chooses to speak the his mistress about how fleeting time is, how they should love one another while they can. Donne, however, chooses to speak to his mistress about not killing a flea because it has mingled their blood inside itself. These both can be considered metaphysical due to the common topic of love. I believe Marvell’s poem was much more enjoyable as well as more convincing as it speaks of how he would admire his mistress forever if he only had forever, thus making the argument they don’t have enough time for her to continue being so coy about this matter.
According to point of view of "Vincent Gorment" he tells that “Marvell does not want to waste time not having sex” is a hilarious and also pretty accurate way to describe how the speaker feels in To His Coy Mistress. This poem is metaphysically similar to John Donne’s The Flea in that speaker in both poems use witty, elaborate, and somewhat ironic comparisons to convince their lovers to have sex with them. However, while The Flea was sarcastic, playful, and mainly written in good humor, To His Coy Mistress has a serious, deeper meaning to it – at least deeper than Donne’s, which poses a comical argument in favor of having premarital sex. A few others brought up the notion of carpe diem and like Carey said, “Marvell does not want to waste time not having sex”, but I think Marvell’s main point is to not waste time at all – not just on not having sex. I think its the concept of carpe diem that he really focuses on and in this case the poem becomes a message to the reader, telling him to live life to the fullest and to enjoy it as much as you possibly can. I think Marvell would tell us to live life deliberately and intensely and to never settle for what is second best. He would tell us to keep our minds active and to not let old age hinder our youthful ambitions. So, where The Flea is a poem specifically dedicated to sex, To His Coy Mistress is a poem that uses sex to emphasize the importance of living a deliberately full life. Looking at it that way, I think I enjoyed To His Coy Mistress more because it captures the spirit of life, not just the spirit of physical desire.
⚫ Conclusion
So now we can say that Both Donne and Maravell have the same general concept in these two poems. Both narrators are trying to convince a woman to sleep with them. Both devalue the notion of virginity as well. Although each does so differently. Donne takes a very logic based approached utilizing the metaphor of the flea to represent the two people. On the other hand, Maravell, as was said, plays on the notion of carpe diem, that they only have so much time. Donne’s argument appears almost impersonal in comparison to Maravell’s. Maravell continually references the individual in the poem, describing how he would reach her “heart”. Maravell’s poem seems more convincing because it appeals to one’s emotions rather than sense of logic.
⚫ References
http://blogs.cofc.edu/seamanm-engl201-f12/2012/10/23/andrew-marvell-and-john-donne-comparison-1025/ reviews of poets.
Analysis of the poems https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Comparison-of-how-The-Flea-and-To-F3JUPSAXH3UEY by Bartleby.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/andrew-marvell introduction of the poets.
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