Examine the ways in which the poets in “The Flea” and “To His Coy Mistress” try to persuade their mistresses.

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Judith Johnson

Examine the ways in which the poets in “The Flea” and “To His Coy Mistress” try to

persuade their mistresses.

    Both “The Flea” by John Donne and “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell are seduction poems, written by the poets to seduce their mistresses. Both have three stanzas and a basic couplet rhyming structure. Donne and Marvell are metaphysical poets from the 17th century. They have taken simple ideas and stretched them far – for example, using a flea as a symbol of union. They have made philosophical poems about simple facts of life – for example, the fear of death seen in “To His Coy Mistress”. The similarity seen between these poems is quite surprising – the use of imagery, enjambement and variation in rhythm and rhyme to relate their ideas, and the way they put forward their arguments to seduce their mistresses.

    In “The Flea”, the flea is used as a symbol of their love, or his love for her. The word ‘flea’ has many connotations and denotations, but interestingly, when spoken sounds the same as the verb, to ‘flee’. In addition to perhaps suggesting the fleeting nature of love, the word also connotes danger: “to run away as from danger; to take flight; to try to escape”, is the Oxford English Dictionaries definition. It can also connote an abrupt ending “to run away from, hasten away from; to quite abruptly, forsake (a person or a place, etc.)”. This insight would give an added dimension to Donne’s use of a flea in his poem. The OED also provides us with the definition “a small wingless insect well known for its biting propensities and its agility leaping.” The finding that fleas do not have wings could be quite significant, because in “The Flea” the flea plays the role of Cupid. Using the imagery of a flea crushes any expectations of high, pompous language and describes love in basic, common terms. The flea is the subject of much of what the poet talks about, and the imagery used is interesting. He uses the flea to convince his mistress of his love for her, and to persuade her to have sex with him. In “To His Coy Mistress” there is no one object used to symbolise the love, but interesting and significant imagery is used often, and to great effect. Different images are used to persuade the poet’s mistress that to sleep with him would be a good thing.

    In stanza 1 of “The Flea” we see as the poet begins by trying to convince his mistress with the idea that sex is not an important thing. He claims that the flea has already mixed their blood, after he bit them, so they’re already together in that way, “And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.” In this stanza, the poet has taken a firm, instructive manner – the first line reads “Mark but this flea and mark in this”. This is an instruction, which tells us how the poet is feeling: confidant, sure and certain. He describes what she is denying him as “little”, which follows with his persuasive argument to her that sex is a small unimportant thing. There is an image of pregnancy as Donne describes the flea as “pamper’d swells with one blood made of two”. Here is talking about what could happen if they did have sex; but reading it from the angle of a biting flea, giving it a seedy – almost repulsive edge. This stanza is rounded up, and sort of evaluated in the final line “And this, alas! Is more than we would do”. It is a complaint. He is annoyed because he believes that the flea has taken their blood and mingles it – and has done more by itself than they have done together, sexually. He has added annoyance as the flea didn’t even have to go to all the effort of wooing her – like is doing – just took what he wanted and left. This stanza shows the man trying to woo the women by telling her that she is making a problem out of something that need not be a problem; denying him something that is causing more trouble than its worth to her.

    The first stanza of  “To His Coy Mistress” would lead us to believe, at first glance, that this was a simple love poem. However, with a little insight we notice words and phrases that seem oddly placed, providing us with a glimpse of what is to come in the second stanza. Indeed, the first lines “Had we but world enough and time, This coyness lady were no crime,” set the scene for the rest of the poem. It is interesting that he uses the word “crime”, as this is sinister – he is not using the word “problem”, for instance. Using that word makes what she is doing to be wrong, sinister – worthy of punishment, and is a little disconcerting. The poet is claiming here that if there were all the time in the world, he would never pressurise her or hurry her. He tells her of all the things that they would do together “To walk and pass our long love’s day”. This is a very lovely idea, and is followed by the way he describes his love for her. He describes his love as being as long as all time “I would love you ten years before the Flood, And you should, if you please, refuse Till the conversion of the Jews”. The first of these events lies at the beginning of the bible, whilst the second is at the end in Revelations. Not only does this effectively cover the whole of time, it brings in the element of religion that is also seen in “The Flea”. This element of religion brings out the subject of the poem as being deeper – more dramatic. Marvell describes his love as being an empire, “My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires”. The use of the word “vegetable” is slightly odd. It taints the beauty of the phrase. A vegetable is basic, and – as Donne does by using a flea in his love poem - brings the reader out of a dream of using pompous and beautiful language to describe love, pulling love down to a common, domestic and necessary status. The word “vaster” is a word that causes us to slow down – it is a slow word in our mouths that demands attention to it, and forces us to notice it. The poet goes on to claim that he would spend an age just admiring her “An age at least to every part”, and how much time he would spend on her different parts “Two hundred to adore each breast”. This is all very romantic, until we realise that there is a catch; he would do this – if only he had the time! He ends the stanza by telling her that she deserves all this, and that “Nor would” he “love at lower rate.” This is a beautiful part of the poem, and really goes to an effort convincing her of his love, but the first line of the next stanza of the poem brings this façade crashing down. In this part of the poem, Marvell uses his love as his persuasive argument towards his mistress – that she should have sex with him because he loves her eternally.

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    The second stanza of  “The Flea” begins with another instruction, “O stay”. This is important, because it shows that the poet is still taking the same standpoint of authority, still confident in what he is saying to persuade his mistress. We see how his argument progresses in this stanza, how he takes his persuasion further. He now starts to claim that the flea represents their life together “three lives in one flea”. We see later in the poem how this becomes a central part of the flea’s entire importance in the poem. In the second line the poet ...

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