Since, thou hast layd that downy Couch aside Since thou fayre soule, art warbleinge to a spheare,įrom whose resultances, theise quickned weere. This poem is not available elsewhere online, so we reproduce the first few lines below: 1574-1636) proves this: born only a couple of years after Donne (probably), Southwell penned this metaphysical ‘elegy’ in which the Ptolemaic and Platonic versions of the universe are used as a way of understanding the power of prayer. Since this flea has sucked blood from both me and you, the poet says to his would-be mistress, our blood has already been mingled in the flea’s body so why shouldn’t we mingle our bodies (and their fluids) in sexual intercourse? Of course, this rather crude paraphrase is a world away from the elegance and metaphorical originality of Donne’s poem with its extended metaphor …Īlthough all of the best-known metaphysical poets are men, it isn’t true that metaphysical poetry in the seventeenth century was solely the province of male poets. Like Andrew Marvell’s ‘To His Coy Mistress’ (see below), ‘The Flea’ is essentially a seduction lyric. Like many of the best metaphysical poems, ‘The Flea’ uses an interesting and unusual conceit to make an argument – in this case, about the nature of physical love. How little that which thou deniest me is Īnd in this flea our two bloods mingled be Ī sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead,Īnd pampered swells with one blood made of two,Īnd this, alas, is more than we would do …
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