John Donne The Simply Simple Simpleton
-A comparison of “The Good-Morrow” and “The Flea”
John Donne’s poetry, a display of intellectual thought and literature skill as much as it is an expression of egotistical lust and yearning. The goal of becoming one spiritually and physically with his lover. The possibilities of where they both could go and how high above all else, they would be. Donne’s poems are a self-insert of himself. In Donne’s “The Good-Morrow”, he churns the love of the speaker and their lover into something equivalent to that of the world and displays his love on a pedestal. This pedestal’s existence is wiped within “The Flea” as he now compares his romance to something of a flea where blood is mixed within. “The Good-Morrow” does this through repetition of the word ‘one’ and talks about ‘worlds coming together’. Donne references the idea of coming together to become one with his lover in “The Flea” where the speaker talks about his blood coming together with his lover’s blood in a flea.
By displaying his love and affection for his lover in “The Good-Morrow”, Donne shows us how his relationship with his lover has developed to be far superior to all else. Donne has used the words ‘one’ repeatedly throughout the poem. Repetition of the word to further emphasize that he and his lover are not to be two separate beings but are now ‘one’. This plays well when he compares the two of them as hemispheres to a world. Two perfect halves that are joined together and sustains this relationship as they are as fore mentioned perfect halves. This idea is further emphasized in the last stanza where he questions the reader about “Where can we find two better hemispheres, / Without sharp north, without declining west?”. These lines bare the connotations of superiority. He openly states that his relationship with his lover cannot be surpassed by any other and stating that they have a sharp north or a declining west which refers to his analogy of hemispheres and worlds. Sharp and declining in this line has a negative connotation and aims to depreciate other relationships. Donne proceeds to further squash other relationships by stating “Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;” which implies that relationships that do not last were not for each other. The poem ends with the line “If our two loves be one, or, thou and I / Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.” Which further empowers his idea of a superior form of love, one so strong that “none can die”.
“The Flea” seems to be a flip side of “The Good-Morrow” in that Donne now compares their love to a flea. Within the poem multiple different interpretation can be had but if the poem were to be read according to the first line “Mark but this flea, and mark in this,”, which can be interpreted as acknowledge all but the flea, acknowledge this, the poem takes on a different meaning. The poem takes a much darker undertone where Donne and his lover has had intercourse and now his lover is with child. In the last stanza he questions his lover as to why she has killed the child they had made. The line could also mean that the flea is insignificant. If the flea is believed to be insignificant, the poem now tackles love, sex, and religion. He states the blood of them two have mixed within something so insignificant that if they were to have intercourse, it would not matter at all, after all, a flea is an insignificant creature. Donne has warped meaning of religion and occurrences to his will within the poem. He compares the action of intercourse to what the flea has just done and believes that religion cannot condemn the action as it would be too insignificant to be condemned. Donne instead implies that the non-physical part of the love is more significant when he states “Just so much honour, when thou yield’st to me,” as he sees more in her agreeing than the actual action itself. Donne plays around with literature and ideas to convey his point and is done in such a way that shows off his intellectual knowledge of the art of seduction but contradicts what he has laid out in “The Good-Morrow”.
Donne uses imagery of the world around him to spotlight his lust and thirst for his love. His metaphors and ideology show how much pride he takes in love and how he sees himself as superior and above all. “The Good-Morrow” depicts how Donne’s love is one and true and is equal to a word and “The Flea” shows that something such as physical intercourse is insignificant and thus religion will be overlooked and instead the non-physical component is far more important.