Premise two in that stanza, of the argument, in a sarcastic tone, “Though use make you apt killing me, let not that self-murder added be”; mockingly means that the woman can squash the flea but despite killing a bit of the speaker, she shouldn’t kill herself because that would be sacrilege and a sin, although the real meaning of this last line is that she can kill the flea with no real loss to herself. In the last stanza, which has a much darker feel, and is the conclusion of the 3-part a syllogism, Donne has arrived at the truth and conclusion; through conquering all of the woman’s views.
The woman has killed the flea; but the man has turned this in his favour and into a seductive argument, because the woman, despite killing the flea, hasn’t lost her honour, nor her “maidenhead” (virginity) nor anything else and remains physically unharmed, therefore as a conclusion to the a syllogism, “just so much honour, when thou yield’st to me, will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee”, which means she will lose as much honour, when she has sex with the speaker, as mush “life” that the flea took from her upon its death; she can have sex with the to the speaker, and can lose her “honour” without losing anything else.
Marvell uses many different language techniques in “To His Coy Mistress” to seduce his “mistress”. In the first stanza he uses simile, “Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side shouldst rubies find”, to associate and juxtapose “his mistress” with rubies, which are precious, rare, exotic and mysterious.
In the first stanza he also uses alliteration, “to walk and pass our long love’s day”; to establish a romantic, courtly feel as an opening for the poem. Marvell then moves on and uses some conceit, “My vegetable love should grow vaster than empires, and more slow”, to play upon an extended metaphor of his love for her as a slow growing vegetable, which also reverts back to the main theme of time, and of the first premise, that if there were enough time in the world, then his love for “his mistress” could grow as slow as a vegetable. Marvell follows this up with courtly conventions of rude hyperbolae, “...Two hundred to adore each breast, but thirty thousand to adore the rest”, to abruptly interrupt the courtly and romantic feel of the poem, with this exaggeration of sexual innuendo.
In the second stanza, the poem becomes much more dark, ominous and erotic, which is equally followed up by Marvell’s diction, with phallic, graphic and ominous imagery, “...Then worms shall try that long preserved virginity, and your quaint honour turn to dust, and into ashes all my lust”; this quote, as a reprise, comes back almost hauntingly to the idea of death and of the premise that time is running out and all of her beauty will pass away; that it is transient and ephemeral. Marvell demonstrates irony; “The grave’s a fine and private place, but none, I think, do there embrace”; a sarcastic comment to mock “his mistress” about the fact that her grave is a place for herself and the speaker remains doubtful whether she’ll actually be able to have sex in there when she’s dead.
Finally, Marvell finishes off the poem with personification, “Rather at once our time devour than languish in his slow-chapt power”, personifying time itself as slow-moving, chewing, eating and devouring. The message Marvell is conveying in this quotation is carpe diem; seize the day, that he and “his mistress” should be the masters of time; that they should devour it, like “amorous birds of pray”. The iambic tetrameter in “To His Coy Mistress” lends the poem momentum and pace and also relates to the theme of the poem, time and mortality; because the metre is structurally reminiscent of the sound of time ticking away; “And yonder all before us lie”.
The strict tetrameter throughout the poem, “At every pore with instant fires”; also makes the poem lightly accessible and as a lower form of metre, is ideal for such an ‘earthy’ subject, unlike the Shakespearean pentameter. The rhyme scheme, of strict and regular Shakespearean rhyming couplets, “Thus...our sun...we will make him run”, at the end of each line, makes the piece emphatically poetic. Enjambment, caesuras and end stopping are also expressed throughout the poem, “and yonder all before us lie deserts of vast eternity”; which is used to emphasise dramatic tension and leave the audience (“the mistress”) on the ‘edge of their seat’, wanting to read, or listen on.
Donne also uses various techniques of language to seduce the woman in his poem. Firstly, he uses the flea throughout the poems as a conceit of their love and of his persistence, “Just so much honour, when thou yield’st to me, will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee”; at the end, this line shows Donne’s true intentions of using the flea as a conceit, because he flips the argument around, in his favour, to say that the woman will lose as much “honour”, as the flea took blood, if she were to have sex with him. Donne opens up the poem, “Mark but this flea, and mark in this”; with direct address to the flea, so he can establish to the audience, immediately form the start, the conceit on which he will play on of the flea, throughout the poem. He then moves on with alliteration, “It suck’d me first, and now sucks thee”; because in the 17th century, the letter “s” would have been written in resemblance to the letter “f”; the sexual innuendo already present, is compounded by this orthographic joke, which is a light approach to the poem; a light touch.
He then moves on, and finishes the stanza, “And pamper’d swells with one blood made of two, and this, alas, is more than we would do”; with luxurious, sensual, even sexual imagery and emotive language, to describe the ‘mingling’ of fluids within the flea which within itself can be a personification of sex; almost happening inside of it. Stanza two continues on with repetition, “our marriage bed, and marriage temple is”; which emphasises this personification of the flea and the blood of all three as a marriage temple, a place of togetherness and joining, and at the same time a marriage bed, a place of sex and expression of love; the flea represents this sanctity of a holy, wonderful and beautiful relationship.
In terms of form, the metre of the poem is regular; with iambic pentameter (5 feat) and tetrameter (4 feat) throughout the poem, the last 2 lines of each stanza are 5 feet, “This flea is you and I, and this our marriage bed, and temple is”; and this irregular metre relates back to the idea of the flea as a conceit (of Donne’s persistence to seduce the woman), because the irregular metre mirrors the flea’s erratic and eccentric bouncing movements, around the “marriage” bed. The rhyme scheme is similar to “To His Coy Mistress”, because to begin with, the poem follows strict Shakespearean rhyming couplets, “cruel and sudden, hast thou since purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence?”; however later on, the poem differs from “To His Coy Mistress” when at the last three lines of each stanza, the rhyming couplets turn into rhyming triplets, “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”; which gives the poem its light tone, and the sudden change, from strict rhyming couplets to triplets almost loosens the structure of the poem and lets it flow on the tongue, as it is read, unlike in “To His Coy Mistress”.
At the same time, the last three rhyming triplets act as a ‘punch-line’ to finish off each stanza. There are not many examples of enjambment, caesurae or end-stopping that can be found in the text, “this flea is you and I, and this our marriage bed, and marriage temple is” this is mainly because Donne tries to keep this loose and light feel that almost seems to role on the tongue, unlike in “To His Coy Mistress”, where this extensive use of the skills gives the poem a blocky, intense and an anticipating feel.
In conclusion, when accessing the effectiveness of each of the poems, in terms of content, form and the language that is used, I feel that both poems are very effective in what they set out to achieve, even though the two poems may differ in certain aspects from each other, for example how Marvell’s has a much darker, lustful and erotic tone, and focuses around the theme of time in comparison with Donne’s which has a much gentler and lighter touch and how he uses the flea as a conceit of their love and of his persistence. However, fundamentally both set out to achieve the same thing, which is to seduce the woman with each poets own unique skills of rhetoric; and I think that both poets fulfil their aims, and therefore that both the ladies would succumb to these irrefutable pieces of poetic argument.
Stefan Lazic
