Referring to either The Flea and/or The Broken Heart do you think that it is fair to say that Donnes choice of metaphor is nothing other than a desire to startle.

Referring to either ‘The Flea and/or ‘The Broken Heart’ do you think that it is fair to say that Donne’s choice of metaphor is nothing other than a desire to startle.

"The greatest thing by far, is to have a command of . This alone cannot be imparted by another; it is the mark of genius, for to make good metaphors implies an eye for resemblance." Aristotle states how successfully creating a metaphor shows true talent in a poet. Many poets throughout the years have used striking metaphorical images for different purposes and John Donne is an excellent example of this, he chooses unusual and often startling metaphors in order to validate his opinion and

perhaps to shock his audience.

In ‘the flea’ he uses the conceit of a flea in order to illustrate his lust towards his mistress. Arguably using a flea in order to persuade and seduce his lover to sleep with him is far-fetched and hyperbolic. Immediately we see Donne having a conversation with his lover and saying to her ‘in this flea our two bloods mingled be.’ This demonstrates Donne is using the flea to represent the mixing of two people. Donne is viewing the flea as a sexual symbol which seems implausible and startling. He goes on to use it as a symbol for pregnancy as it ‘swells with one blood made of two’. Donne seems jealous of the flea as it gets ‘pamper’d’ and wonders freely over his mistress’ body and he states ‘alas, is more than wee would doe’. Donne also wants this privilege without having to ‘wooe’. He uses exaggerated phrases such as ‘alas’, in order to show his despair and imperatives such as ‘stay’. These appear absurd and comedic as he is talks about a small and insignificant flea. This is startling to the reader as Donne appears jealous of the flea yet also shows true emotions towards the flea and what it represents.

Donne relates his metaphors to his audience’s beliefs at the time he was writing “The Flea”. This way he uses them to shock his audience to a greater extent. His mistress was about to kill the flea before the second stanza but he says ‘stay, three lives in one flea spare’. This reflects religious symbols of the father, the son and the Holy Ghost. Donne is comparing the flea to holiness which would have been shocking to his strictly religious Christian Elizabethan audience. Even to a twenty first century audience this idea is disturbing showing that Donne’s choice of metaphor is shocking and uncomfortable. This could illustrate that Donne’s metaphor is nothing other than a desire to startle. Similarly in “The Broken Heart” Donne uses metaphors for love such as such as ‘the plague’ and a ‘flask of powder’. He is describing how love is rapidly destructive. However this would have been shocking to his audience of the time as he was writing not long after the Black Plague and just after the Gunpowder Plot to assassinate James 1st. This could illustrate that Donne’s use of metaphor was nothing other than a desire to startle.

In the second stanza the conceit of the flea escalates into a symbol of marriage instead of just sexual intercourse. The flea sucked both of their blood and now represents a priest that has united them in marriage. Even though her ‘parents grudge’ ‘and you’ yet Donne again stresses ‘yea more than maryed are’. He refers to their blood as being ‘cloysterd’ in the flea, Donne is once again using religious imagery reinforcing his earlier thoughts. This again would also have shocked his Elizabethan audience and the flea can be seen as bathos used ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

A.H Welsh says “we see that far- fetched similes, extravagant metaphors, are not here occasional blemishes but the substance. He should have given us simple images, simply expressed1.” Welsh believes Donne uses “extravagant” metaphors in order to explain his emotions, but in his mind they are useless and simple images would have illustrated his opinion better. However I believe that Donne uses extravagant metaphors in order to shock his audience in order to allow them to connect with his ideas and opinions. Even though he uses extravagant metaphors to startle his audience, simple images would have had little effect in a poem such as “The Flea”.

Furthermore Critic R.G Cox suggests that ‘Donne chose to do something different from his predecessors and from those of his contemporaries who were still exploiting and developing the existing modes.’ Donne’s work varied very much from the typical Elizabethan poetry such as ‘To Her’ by Sir Walter Raleigh, which states ‘The flowers do fade and wanton fields,

To wayward winter reckoning yields’.

This is a prime example of traditional romantic imagery. Reinforcing Cox’s view that Donne’s intentions were to push the boundaries of literary convention in order to startle his audience. This is shown in “The Broken Heart” as he personifies love telling us “Hee swallows us and never chawes”. He tells us how love is merciless and brutal using the metaphor of a monster. Furthermore he compares love to a “tyran Pike”. Donne is expressing how love is all consuming, violent and evil. This imagery is startling as compared to other poetry of his time. His use of metaphor in “The Broken Heart” seems violent as he expresses his opinion on love. It could be seen that his use of metaphor is nothing other than a desire to startle his audience because it was such a contrast from other poetry of the time.

On the other hand Donne uses the metaphor of the flea because it is persuasive. Donne uses the metaphor for ‘explaining, describing, expressing’ and ‘entertaining’. The metaphor of the flea is vital in this poem because ‘a lot of our understanding of things is mediated through metaphor2’. Donne often uses a creative metaphor which he has constructed in order to express his emotions and feelings in a certain context, leaving it to his reader to deconstruct.

In ‘The Flea’ Donne felt the need to set up a strong argument in order to win his mistress over. This was due to the nature of sexual intercourse out of wedlock, and the fear of either bearing an illegitimate child or being labelled as a ‘fallen’ woman. The fact he is using the flea in order to persuade rather than to just startle is evident in the structure. The rhyming couplets at the beginning of each stanza represent a new argument and each rhyming triplet at the end of each stanza concludes the point. The use of one line of Iambic tetrameter followed by two lines of pentameter reinforces this conclusion. Therefore it is evident that the structure of the poem is in order to set up an argument and the metaphor is just a conceit to support this argument.

The flea is small and insignificant and this connects to the fact that her concerns about sleeping with him, in his view, are also insignificant. Donne states to his mistress ‘how little that which thou deny’st me is’ showing he is comparing the flea to her concerns. In the first stanza he introduces his problem expressing his frustration and in the last explains why he believes he is right. R.G Cox describes the poem as ‘deliberately cynical3’ highlighting that Donne is cleverly manipulating the conceit of the flea for his own benefit. His clever use of persuading her with the use of metaphor shows that the metaphor is more than just a desire to startle

At the end of the second stanza Donne tells his mistress it’s a sacrilege to kill the flea which links back to the earlier religious imagery. However it seems as though Donne is losing his argument as in the final stanza she kills the flea. He calls her ‘cruell’ and ‘sodain’ which shows that he is hurt by her killing the flea, which he considers to be the ‘blood of innocence’. This could be related to the killing of Christ as she has sacrificed this holy representation. Donne initially tries to accuse her of murder and sin however he then turns around his argument to suit himself at the end.

Donne is aware she’s ‘triamph’st’ killing his argument as she says ‘findst not thy self, nor thee weaker now’ stating that his argument is wrong and nothing has happened whilst she killed the flea. Donne cleverly turns this statement around in order to benefit his point of view as he states ‘tis true, then learn how false fears bee’ demonstrating that her fears in sleeping with him are false as was the fear of killing the flea. This is why Donne has used the flea in order to create this metaphor as it has allowed him to conclude with a strong argument to benefit himself. He is illustrating that as she lost little honour in killing the flea, she would lose little honour in sleeping with him. This witty argument shows Donne using a conceit in order to persuade his mistress and not just to startle his readers.

In contrast to “The Flea”, Donne uses metaphors in “The Broken Heart” in order to show his true bitterness towards love. As J. B. Leishman tells us “At one time, then, he really thought that there was such a thing as true love and faithfulness in woman, that them was something in the chivalrous devotion of Spenser and the sonneteers. Then he was deceived, was for a time inflamed with hatred and bitterness”. This is clearly shown in “The Broken Heart” as he uses the metaphor of broken glass as he says “ at one first blow did shiver it as glasse”. This reflects the idea of heartbreak as he compares this to the shattering of glass. He goes on to explain how

“though they be not unite;

And now as broken glasses show

A hundred lesser faces”

He is explaining how his heart can reflect different lovers, yet it is still broken. This shows that Donne is using metaphor in order to clearly explain his true emotions and not just to startle his audience. He explains how

“ragges of heart can like, whish and adore,

But after one such love, can love no more”

This tells us that Donne can never love again now that his heart has already been broken. The metaphor of glass and rags clearly explains that once a heart is broken; though it can be fixed it will never be the same. This tells us that Donne uses metaphors in order to express his true emotions and not just to startle his audience.

Critic R.G Cox states that ‘At its best the metaphysical conceit communicates a unified experience; what matters is the sense of imaginative pressure and intensity.’ I believe this view is clearly illustrated by Donne’s use of the flea as a conceit. Through this conceit Donne clearly expresses his opinion of his mistress’s chastity and not only startles the reader but sets up a witty and entertaining argument. This is also illustrated in the metaphors used in “The Broken Heart” as Donne expresses his true emotions about his heartbreak with “imaginative pressure and intensity”.

1,869 words.

1 A.H Welsh

Book by , ; Routledge, 1996

2Knowles & Moon (2006) introducing metaphor, (pp 2-6), Abington Rouledge