The third quatrane starts with the word “but”, which signals a change to a different thought. In this quatrane, Shakespeare uses exaggerated claims to show how perfect she is. He says,
“Thy eternal Sommer shall not fade, nor lose possession of that faire thou ow’st”.
Here, he is explaining how much better than a summer’s day she is. He says that she will not lose her beauty due to ageing unlike summer, which turns into autumn after a while. He also personifies death to say,
“Nor shall death brag thou wandr’st in his shade”.
He tries to make it seem more sinister and he goes so far that he claims that she won’t even die, but will live forever.
The rhyming couplet at the end is the climax of the poem. Shakespeare says that as long as “men can breath” and the poem survives her beauty will also survive. It gives the impression that the lines of the poem have given her immortality.
The argument shown in ‘The Flea’ is very different. In this poem, the poet uses a three-part argument, or syllogism, which is arranged in three stanzas, to convince the woman to have sex with him.
Donne’s first argument is that the flea has bitten both him and the woman so their blood is mixed together inside the flea. Even though they have not had sex, it is as though they have because their “bloods mingled”. The poet uses this as a comparison to a sexual union. He goes on to say that the mingling of their blood is so insignificant, since it has not affected either of them, that there is no need for anxiety and therefore she should have sex with him as it is not much different. Because their bloods have been mingled, it is as though they have already had sex, so they may as well have sex properly.
In the second stanzas, or argument, the woman tries to kill the flea to stop any more progression. However, the poet cleverly stops her by doing so by arguing that because their blood has been intermingled in the flea it is a union, just as marriage is a union and therefore it is as though they are married. He says that if she kills the flea, “three lives” (his, her and the flea’s lives) will be lost and therefore their marriage would also be killed. At the time that the poem was written, marriage was very important and highly respected and if she were to kill the flea, which represented their ‘marriage’, she would destroy their ‘marriage’, which was considered a grave sin. There is also a religious significance to this part of the argument, which is shown by the use of words such as “temple” and “sacrilege”. The poet argues that if she kills the flea, she would ‘kill’ herself, which would be suicide. This was also sinful.
The third part of the argument opens with the woman killing the flea. He is annoyed by this and asks her why she did so, since the flea had only sucked blood from her. At this point, the woman talks, but what she says is not quoted. She thinks that because she has killed the flea, she has crushed his argument and has come out triumphant. Donne had argued that God would punish her if she were to kill the flea. She is triumphant because nothing happened to her despite her killing the flea. However, the poet uses her triumph in his own favour. He says that since nothing has happened due to the killing of the flea, then surely nothing would happen if she were to give in to him. She would not lose “so much honour”.
Syllogism is also used in ‘To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell. Marvell is also trying to get the woman in the poem to have sex with him. He firstly argues that if they had all the time they wanted, they could progress their relationship slowly. He goes on to say that time isn’t in their hands and then finally argues that, because of the situation, they should make the most of their time, and therefore have sex now. In ‘The Flea’, Donne uses the flea as the structure of his argument, however Marvell uses time to link the poem and his argument. Marvell uses other things in his argument to convince the woman in his poem. He uses the idea of space, by talking about the rivers “Ganges” and “Humber”. He is trying to say that if they had all the space they wanted, they could let their relationship develop slowly. The poet also uses words associated with death, such as “grave” and “ashes”, to convince the woman to have sex with him before it is too late.
‘The Flea’ is a battle of logical argument between the man and the woman. It is a face-to-face confrontation where the man is trying to outwit the woman and vice versa. Therefore, it has nothing to do with love since there are no references to his non-sexual feelings, such as her beauty, whereas in ‘Shall I compare thee…’ the poem is full of compliments and the poet is celebrating her beauty.
Both poets have different attitudes to the women in their poems.
Shakespeare talks about the woman in his poem with respect and as though she is perfect. He seems to put her on top of a pedestal, which was typical of how men wrote about love in Shakespeare’s time. The poet celebrates her beauty and compliments and flatters her throughout the poem. She is shown to be the ideal and perfect woman. If the woman was to respond to what the poet says, it is definite that she would be flattered.
The woman in Donne’s poem is treated very differently. He sees her more as an object to satisfy his desires rather than being romantic with her. He uses a very brusque tone of voice when he tries to trick and outwit her. He also commands her in an abrupt way, for example when he tells her to “stay” and not to kill the flea. The woman is not shown to be the same as the woman in Shakespeare’s poem. This woman kills the flea and so is not perfect and therefore is a normal and realistic woman. This woman’s response would also be different. She would be trying to actively resist his advances, whereas the other woman would have been pleased about what was happening.
‘Shall I compare thee…’ contrasts with ‘First Love’ as well. Shakespeare does not appear to have any intense feelings, unlike Clare who says at one point that the woman “stole my heart away”. Clare’s feelings have a physical effect unlike Shakespeare’s. The poets in these two poems are quite obsessive about the women they talk about. The poet in ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ is so obsessive about the woman that he kills her to make sure she is always with him. This gives his love a more sinister and abnormal feel. It is a contrast to Clare’s and Shakespeare’s poems.
The woman in ‘The Flea’ contrasts with the woman in ‘Porphyria’s Lover’. The woman in ‘The Flea’ is resisting seduction, whereas the woman in ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ is the one who seduces the man rather than the other way round. However, both poems concentrate on the sexual aspects of love, but Browning’s poem is more dramatic and story-like.
Shakespeare and Donne use range of language techniques to get their points across.
Shakespeare personifies the sun by saying describing it as having a “gold complexion” and that it is the “eye of heaven”, where the sky is the face and the sun is the eye. He uses this to create a more poetic and romantic mood. He also personifies death in the line,
“Nor shall death brag thou wandr’st in his shade”.
He is saying that death will not take her away and therefore she is immortal. There are two other poems where death and time are referred to using personification. The first is “To His Coy Mistress”, where the poet says,
“Times wingèd chariot hurrying near”.
This is a contrast to ‘Shall I compare thee…’ Here, time is travelling on a “chariot” and is approaching and will eventually catch up and cause death. Marvell personifies time not death, but in effect, he personifies death because time and death are linked. The second place where death is personified is in ‘Let me not’, also by Shakespeare. Here, he personifies death by using the phrase “his bending sickles”. This is a reference to the Grim Reaper and it adds to the link between Time and Death.
Shakespeare also creates a light and gentle tone by using words such as “darling buds” and “eternal summer”.
Donne uses only one thing, the flea, to structure his poem, unlike Shakespeare who uses several non-living things. A flea is not normal to use in poems to do with love and so makes the poem odd and unexpected, unlike Shakespeare who uses traditional, romantic language, such as the sky and the heavens. Donne exaggerates things to compare with, otherwise known as conceit. This makes the poem unusual and quite entertaining to read. For example, the use of the flea to promote his arguments is so farfetched that it is meant to impress the reader about the poet’s intelligence. ‘The Flea’ is about seduction, but uses religious language, such as “temple” and “sins”, to make the woman feel as though there would be nothing wrong with her sleeping with him. The language in ‘The Flea’ is more intellectual, whereas in Shakespeare’s poem, it is more romantic.
‘Shall I compare thee…’ is a Shakespearean sonnet consists of fourteen lines. It has three quatranes and a single rhyming couplet at the end. The three quatranes introduce and develop the ideas of the poem and have the rhyme scheme, ababcdcdefef. The rhyming couplet concludes the poem and signals the end. The metre used is iambic pentameter, which includes five stressed, and five unstressed syllables for every line. Shakespeare does appear to use a three-part argument, but it is not as apparent is in ‘The Flea’. Shakespeare firstly argues whether he should or should not compare the woman to a summer’s day. He secondly argues how imperfect a summer’s day is unlike her. Lastly, he argues that as long as this poem survives, her celebrated beauty will survive as well.
‘The Flea’ has a regular rhyme scheme of aabbccdd, which gives it a regular rhythm. This poem is a mixture of pentameter, which are ten syllable lines, and tetrameters, which are eight syllable lines. Donne uses an obvious three-part argument, or syllogism, where he uses the flea to structure it.
Shakespeare uses a sonnet, which was a traditional way of writing about romantic love. Donne’s poem is more intellectual in which he uses persuasive and rhetorical devices.
The comparison’s Shakespeare uses are passionate and interesting, but Donne’s poem is more enjoyable to read since it uses wit and a clever structure to make it entertaining. The farfetched idea of using a flea to persuade a woman for sex is very unusual and makes the poem more enjoyable. Shakespeare’s poem is more typical of a love poem, since the language he uses is more affectionate, but I have found Donne’s more appealing to read because the wittiness and content of the poem is so unexpected.
