1、Selected Readings of British & American Poetry,Lecture 3: Metaphysical Poetry,Representative,John Donne (1572-1631) Founder of the Metaphysical school of poetry/ received education at Oxford and Cambridge and later studies law Metaphysical school of poetry:The use of conceit (marked by bold and inge
2、nious conceits, incongruous imagery, complexity of thoughts, frequent use of paradox)Conversational style Work: “the Flea”,The Flea,MARK but this flea, and mark in this, How little that which thou deniest me is ; It suckd me first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled be. Thou
3、 knowst that this cannot be said A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ; Yet this enjoys before it woo, And pamperd swells with one blood made of two ; And this, alas ! is more than we would do.,O stay, three lives in one flea spare, Where we almost, yea, more than married are. This flea is you a
4、nd I, and this Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is. Though parents grudge, and you, were met, And cloisterd in these living walls of jet. Though use make you apt to kill me, Let not to that self-murder added be, And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.,Cruel and sudden, hast thou since Purpl
5、ed thy nail in blood of innocence? Wherein could this flea guilty be, Except in that drop which it suckd from thee? Yet thou triumphst, and sayst that thou Findst not thyself nor me the weaker now. Tis true ; then learn how false fears be ; Just so much honour, when thou yieldst to me, Will waste, a
6、s this fleas death took life from thee.,metaphysical means dealing with the relationship between spirit to matter or the ultimate nature of reality. The Metaphysical poets are obviously not the only poets to deal with this subject matter, so there are a number of other qualities involved as well:,Us
7、e of ordinary speech mixed with puns, paradoxes and conceits (a paradoxical metaphor causing a shock to the reader by the strangeness of the objects compared; some examples: lovers and a compass, the soul and timber, the body and mind) The exaltation of wit, which in the 17th century meant a nimblen
8、ess of thought; a sense of fancy (imagination of a fantastic or whimsical nature); and originality in figures of speech,Abstruse terminology often drawn from science or law Often poems are presented in the form of an argument In love poetry, the metaphysical poets often draw on ideas from Renaissanc
9、e Neo-Platonism to show the relationship between the soul and body and the union of lovers souls They also try to show a psychological realism when describing the tensions of love.,Questions,1. In this poem, the speaker tries to persuade his mistress to go to bed with him and to demonstrate that the
10、 reasons for resistance are trivial. How is the flea used in his persuasion? 2. It may help you to understand this poem to realize that during the seventeenth century it was believed that women became pregnant when the blood of the man (present in his semen) mixed with her blood during sexual interc
11、ourse. With this in mind, what do the first six lines of the second stanza mean to you?,Questions,3. How is the flea in this poem an example of a conceit? Is the poet contradictory in comparing the flea first to what the lady denies him, to an impregnated being, and then to the honor which might be lost if the lady “yields“ to him?. 4. Why does the speaker say that to kill the flea would be “three sins in killing three“? 5. In the third stanza, the woman has killed the flea. What is the speakers response to that? 6. What is your response to the speakers argument in the poem?,
