Persuading their Mistresses in The Flea and To His Coy Mistress Essay

Persuading their Mistresses in The Flea and To His modest MistressExamine the ways in which the poets in The Flea and To His CoyMistress try to persuade their mistresses.Both The Flea by John Donne and To His Coy Mistress by AndrewMarvell are seduction poems, written by the poets to seduce theirmistresses. Both have three stanzas and a basic couplet rhymingstructure. Donne and Marvell are metaphysical poets from the 17thcentury. They have taken simple ideas and stretched them farther - forexample, using a flea as a symbol of union. They have madephilosophical poems about simple facts of life - for example, the fearof death seen in To His Coy Mistress. The similarity seen betweenthese poems is quite surprising - the use of imagery, enjambement andvariation in rhythm and rhyme to relate their ideas, and the way theyput in front their arguments to seduce their mistresses.In The Flea, the flea is used as a symbol of their be intimate, or his lovefor her. The word flea has many connot ations and denotations, butinterestingly, when spoken sounds the same as the verb, to flee. Inaddition to perhaps suggesting the fleeting nature of love, the wordalso connotes danger to run away as from danger to take flight totry to escape valve, is the Oxford English Dictionaries definition. It canalso connote an abrupt ending to run away from, hasten away from toquite abruptly, forsake (a person or a place, etc.). This insightwould give an added dimension to Donnes use of a flea in his poem.The OED also provides us with the definition a small wingless insectwell know for its biting propensities and its agility leaping. Thefinding that fleas do not have wings could be quite significant,because ... ...blood, and that trip out with him willtake no more from than the flea did. Marvells scratch line persuasion tacticis a romantic one - that he loves her so much she should have sex withhim, the second persuasive argument is that if she doesnt have sexwith him, measure will pass an d she will die a virgin. His last is againone of time - that they should take hold of time how they can, andmake him Marvell personifies time in his poem run. The imagery inTo His Coy Mistress is very effective, and the use of a flea as asymbol in a love poem holds together quite well, even if it is arather surprising choice. The enjambment in both poems really givesthe poems meaning, creating a tone in all(prenominal) of them, and whether themistresses they were trying to persuade were every actually persuadedor not, it is clear that the poets went to great lengths in theirattempts.