What does the phrase Purpled thy nail refer to?
Cruel and sudden, hast thou since. Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence? A.) an injury the speaker’s beloved incurred as he wooed her.
What does it mean when the speaker declares Though use make you apt to kill me Let not to that self murder added be ‘?
Though use make you apt to kill me, Let not to that self-murder added be, But, he says, if she kills the flea she will be committing no fewer than three separate sins: murder, suicide (“self murder”), and sacrilege (or disrespecting the faith). It’s murder because his blood is in the flea.
What does the second stanza of the flea mean?
This poem uses the image of a flea that has just bitten the speaker and his beloved to sketch an amusing conflict over whether the two will engage in premarital sex. By the second stanza, the speaker is trying to save the flea’s life, holding it up as “our marriage bed and marriage temple.”
What does the flea symbolize in the flea by John Donne?
John Donne’s poem, ‘The Flea’ is a metaphor for sex. The speaker shows a flea to a woman he wants to sleep with, and states that the flea has combined them into one by biting them both and sucking their blood. A metaphor for sex, the flea has bitten both the speaker and the woman and their blood is mixed together.
Which two sets of lines in the poem illustrate that death’s power is an illusion quizlet?
The lines in the poem which illustrate that death’s power is an illusion are: A) Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow.
Which excerpt highlights the theme of the fleeting nature of life quizlet?
Answer: The excerpt highlights the theme of the fleeting nature of life is the one by Andrew Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress.”
What three things will the woman killed by crushing The Flea?
Now she (quite rationally) tries to kill the flea, but the speaker stops her. He says the flea represents the joining of their blood, as in marriage. If she squashes the flea, she will be killing herself, the speaker, and, oh-by-the-way, committing sacrilege against the institution of marriage.
What is the paradox in The Flea?
In “The Flea” by John Donne, the paradox that the speaker presents concerns a flea that has bitten both him and the woman he is trying to seduce.
What is the argument in the flea?
The Flea is a poem that is all about one man trying to get a woman to have sex with him. The woman is probably a virgin. In his attempt to persuade his would be lover the man focuses on a flea, a parasite that has sucked blood from them both. He uses a logical argument (a conceit) to try and win her over.
What does the listener do to the flea?
The Flea/Blood Throughout the poem, the speaker obsessively meditates on the blood inside the flea—blood that started out in two separate bodies and is now “one blood made of two.” If the reader takes the conceit of the poem seriously, this is literally true: the flea does contain two people’s blood.