After reading these three different poems I have come to the conclusion that the Flea is much harder to understand than the holy sonnets. While i get the basic gist of the poem that he thinks of the flea as a thing that unites them in something greater than marriage, I find that it has a good deal of symbolism and hidden meanings in every line which makes it confussing and harder to read and understand. I do get though that he and his lover have been sheltered from the outside world by their parents and this has given them some crazy notions of self killing. He didn't want to believe that the flea was real but once it came and it bit both of them he like the flea becuas their blood now mixed in one thing and this brought them together closer. He also say's that when the flea dies it will take the life from him because the flea held there lives safe and together and peaceful. It was their wedding ring. I agree with chase that this poem is so ridiculous that it is almost comical.
The sonnets are much easier to read and I liked them more. For the first one I understood it to say the he wants salvation from God because he's seent he angles and how they have been healed of there afflictions from earth. He knows that it's too late to ask for it when he reaches heaven so he's calling out to God now so that he can live forever with the countless number of angels. The second sonnet is along the same lines as the first but it describes his feelings of salvation in more detail. It is a much more realization on his part that he can no longer solve his problems by himself so he wants to give it all up to God and knows that if he does this his temptation to be with the enemy will go away and his life will be taken care of. He says that God can come into him and exert his mighty power to liberate him form the enemy but never from God himself. He will always be held by God.
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I believe that The Flea is a good poem in the sense that if you can see some of the hidden meaning behind it (even though there isn't much), its classical. I haven't read the Holy Sonnets yet and boy I hope their easier then the Flea because they should be a piece of cake then because I thought the Flea was mostly upfront in what it had to say. The two weren't married yet, he wanted premarital sex and she didn't....he came up with a good reason for them to have it, but she denies it by killing the flea. Another good poem by Donne!
I like how Donne includes hidden meaning behind his words. It's crazy how we can interupt so much just from the smallest words/phrases. It's really amazing seeing how Donne can use such a little insect to connect the huge idea of premarital sex. (who would have ever thought to have used a flea though?) I agree with Vinny when he says this poem was pretty upfront. It was easier to interupt than some of the other poems. From this poem, I get the idea that the speaker wants to engage in premarital sex while his lover does not and he relates the flea to show his and his lovers blood intertwined together.
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