John Donne’s (1572-1631), love poems are not a constant expression of his views on love. Donne presents a variety emotions in his love poems. However, he also has contrasting views on love. Donne has many different experiences with love. However, ‘The Flea,’ as well as ‘To his Mistress Going to Bed,’ can be seen to be Donne trying to glorify and celebrate the physical nature, without any guilt or shame.
The Flea, as well as ‘To Her Mistress Going To bed’, are Donne’s attempts to glorify physical love. The Flea focuses on seduction and persuasiveness, while love is portrayed in a natural, innocent, and sometimes even heretical way. The speaker in ‘The Flea,’ tries to discredit the young woman’s moral concerns by using a flea to persuade her to give up her virginity. In the first verse, the speaker tells her that since the flea has already sucked their blood together, they have become one. In the third stanza, after she has killed the insect despite his objections (line 25), he refers to her concern over losing chastity. Donne’s words make premarital sexual activity seem natural and harmless.
‘To his mistress going to bed’ is a celebration of the joyous and adventurous exploration that is love. In ‘To his Mistress going to bed’, the poet praises the sensual pleasures of a young girl’s body. The speaker waits for his mistress to undress in front of him, and the poem unfolds. A similar experience would be exciting for the speaker. In line 32-35, he states that “… The joys of the poem are all due to him, and that “full unclothing” (line 33) is the thing bringing him joy. He also describes the body of the young woman as a land unexplored that awaits his conquest. The speaker describes the young lady’s body as “O my America” (line 27). He also says that he will establish his kingdom during exploration by establishing “My new-found land” (line 28, and that he is most secure with only one man in it). This piece is about the physical enjoyment of love.
Donne’s exaltation of the physicality of love challenges and rejects Petrarchan conceptions of love. In Petrarchan Poetry, mistresses usually are chaste. They tend to be distant. The male lovers will show constant devotion but suffer unrequited feelings. Donne does not create a courtly relationship in his works ‘The Flea & ‘To His Misstress Going To bed’. In ‘To Her Mistress Going to Bed’, she is far from being distant, because in this poem, she shares the same bedroom as the speaker. In The Flea, instead of using the romantic language used by male lovers to seduce their mistresses in Petrarchan romance poetry, the speaker makes use of an unromantic metaphor, a flea. This is to encourage the young lady to have a sexual relationship with him. The Flea as well as ‘To his Mistress Going To bed’ both focus on immediate sexual satisfaction. This is directly contrary to Petrarchan’s chastity.
Donne not only glorifies the physical aspect of love but also breaks the Petrarchan concept of love. In ‘The Flea,’ and in ‘To his Mistress going to bed’, Donne transforms a physical union and makes it into something more spiritual, a union between souls, even souls and God. In ‘The Flea”, Donne uses the flea to represent the sacred religious marriage ceremony between him and the young lady. The flea’s blood represents not only life itself, but also the different aspects that Donne has portrayed in his writing, such as physical passion and religious devotion. The line 10 of the second stanza refers to “three fleas in one spare flea” as an allusion to the Bible’s holy trinity. The multiple religious metaphors used in ‘The Flea,’ can be taken as a sign that Donne believed the physical union of women and God can go hand-in-hand.
In ‘To his Mistress Going to Bed’, Donne’s adaptation the Neoplatonic concept of love is also reflected. Neoplatonic thought of love considers physical love to be the bottom rung. Once physical love is evident, it can move up the ladder to love of God and spiritual beauty. In the poem ‘To Her Mistress Going to Bed’ the speaker states that “As Souls Unbodied, Bodies Uncloth’d Must Be” (line35) the spiritual connection is essential between two souls. In “In Such White Robes, Heaven’s Angels Were Received by Men” (line 19-21), the speaker compares mistress to an Angel. Angels are the divine mediators between humans and God. The speaker in this poem believes that her love, whether it is purely physical or not, will help him get closer to God.
The Flea, and ‘To his Mistress going to bed’ are very similar despite Donne changing his mind about love. Donne praises the physicality and innocence of love in his two poems. The Petrarchan idea of courtly love, with its chastity-inducing spirits, is then challenged by such a glorification. Donne, too, has equated the physical love in both poems with the spiritual, transforming it into a holy marriage between souls.
