my lahvley essay + more

i lied. i do care about coming second. i shall win. i SHALL. thing is, i know i'm gonna make myself a lot of enemies in the process. i am a control freak and a slave driver, and i need this to be perfect. in fact, i am basically ms caldwell. no. i will not say that. but today i made helen feel so bad, and it was all pride. i want to be the best, and i don't want to be a disgrace like last year.
so, i am really focusing on this band. it's taking priority over schoolwork atm if i'm honest. what can i say, i'm over competitive.

i am currently writing a comparitive analysis on two pre-1914 poems, and DARN it is boring. compare "the flea" and "to his coy mistress." NO. i do not want to waste my life on this crap, let's get to the drama-y parts of english please. but i can't really complain about it forever, i will have to get used to it as it is my best subject. you've got to admit my essays are pretty darned awesome.

some nitwit has pinched my star stickers. i only got them on tuesday and i gave like 10 out, and now they have vanished!! c'est tres mauve.

anything elsee? well, not really. here is my essay for your reading. skip it, seriously.

Compare “The Flea” and “To his Coy Mistress”

“To his Coy Mistress” and “The Flea” explore the attempted seduction of a young woman in order to attain her virginity. At the time when these poems were written, a woman's virginity was considered a seal of quality, and was often all she had to give away. It was considered an honor to receive this, but at the time loss of virginity prior to marriage was frowned upon. Both poets, John Donne and Andrew Marvell, are considered metaphysical poets, whose work often contains wit, subtle argument, unusual simile and a metaphysical conceit.

In “The Flea,” the metaphysical conceit – an extended metaphor that governs a whole poem – is in the flea. On one level, this is a poem is about a flea which has bitten two people, and their argument about whether or not to kill it. However, it is also about much more. The young man who is the voice of this poem uses the flea to represent sex, and this is the metaphysical conceit. The addressee is the man's mistress, and as well as trying persuade her to spare the flea's life, her attempts to convince her that giving up her virginity is not as important as she might think. The idea at the time was that during intercourse blood was passed between bodies. According to this belief, the couple have already had sex, as the flea has taken blood from both of them – their “two bloods mingled be.” The young man uses this as the main argument in his poem. 

The loss of virginity is first mentioned when John Donne, in the persona of another, writes, “How little that which thou deny'st me is.” here begins the argument designed to seduce the woman, with a point that Donne repeats throughout; loss of virginity is not as life-changing a thing as she believes. “It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,” is the first in a long line of sexual innuendos, as an orthographic pun causes the word “sucked” to appear similar to “fucked,” and therefore implies that in effect the couple have already had sex in the flea, and argues the aforementioned point that the woman has no virginity to lose. “Thou know'st that this cannot be said a sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead,” also refers to the mingling of the two bloods within the flea. This is believe by Donne's character to be as intimate as sex, yet his mistress doesn't see it as sinful or feel that she has lost anything, and the fact that Donne writes “this cannot be said” three things reinforces his point and helps his message stay with the object of his desires. “Yet this enjoys before it woo,” intimates that the flea gets its enjoyment – blood – without anything special before or during, whereas the young man has tried the preliminaries and has not yet been pleasured with consummation. “Pampered swells with one blood made of two,” refers to the flea being bloated with blood and also continues the sexual innuendo, “And this, alas, is more than we would do,” again suggests that, as the flea has already mingled the two bloods, the girl's virginity is gone. This clarifies the points made in the rest of the stanza; if this young woman's virginity is non-existent then sex ought not to be shameful. 

The second stanza brings a change in tone; the young man becomes more desperate as his mistress moves to kill the flea. “Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,” signifies that killing the flea would also be killing the couple, as part of them is inside it. “This our marriage bed, and marriage temple is,” refers to how in Donne's time it was believed that virginity ought to be taken in the marriage bed, not before marriage. This was viewed as very important and the woman is reluctant to give up her virginity, or what is left of it, without first being married. “Though parents grudge,” hints that another reason for her reluctance may be the disapproval of her parents, which the loss of virginity prior to marriage would certainly earn her. “W'are met, and cloistered in these living walls of jet,” connects with the aforementioned idea of their two lives being contained within the flea, and also shows that their love is protected inside the flea. It could also hold a religious reference – Donne had always been a religious man, so cloistered could signify a cloister in a church. Another religious reference is in, “Sacrilege, three sins in killing three,” which represents the holy trinity as well as the three lives the flea holds. 

The third stanza begins after the speaker's mistress has squashed the flea. We, the audience, first suspect this in the first line, where Donne writes, “Cruel and sudden,” describing the manner in which the flea was killed. This inkling is confirmed when the speaker questions his mistress' actions, “Wherein could this flea guilty be, except in that drop which it sucked from thee?” Donne's character clearly feels that the flea was innocent. However, the flea's death is used to argue the main point of this poem; loss of virginity will not affect the woman as much as she thinks. “Thou say'st that thou find'st not thyself, nor me the weaker now,” means that though both the speaker and addressee were part of this flea, and it was where their sexual relationship resided, she argues that they are none the weaker for it being dead. This is used to the man's advantage, as the argument is concluded with, “Just so much honor will waste, when thou yield'st to me, will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee,” which summarises the poem's message – giving away virginity before marriage is not a waste, and it will not affect the woman as far as she believes. 

The argument contained in “The Flea” attempts to seduce its addressee, not through flattery, but by attempting to make the situation seem of little significance. John Donne's character wishes to make his mistress'

...interesting, non?