In Ecstasy

            John Donne: Love, Spirituality, and Sex.
             When looking up the definition of love there are too many definitions to state, but to fall in love is a whole other subject. To fall in love: to become enamored of or sexually attracted to another is the Webster's definition. In John Donne's poems this seems to be the case. In "The Flea," Donne expresses his wish to bed his beloved in a subtle way. He mixes spirituality and sex into one as he expresses his wishes through an outside source: the flea. While sex is in his mind, he goes onto say it is not just that, that brings electricity in "The Ecstasy." While sex is a big part, two souls and the connection between them is sometimes stronger. While both these poems deal with love, "The Broken Heart" deals with the loss of a love. The breaking of a heart has a greater affect in many cases on a soul then the actual falling itself.
             Donne uses images throughout all of these poems to get his point across. In "The Flea" he uses the flea as an erotic image that symbolizes the act of premarital sex. When he says, "It sucked me first, and now sucks thee, and in this flea our two bloods mingled be." he uses the flea to bring the two lovers together. They are brought together in this flea by bodily fluids, suggesting the act of sex. The difference is that through the flea there is no "sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhood." The flea, by uniting their blood, has done more then they could have done, without committing a sin. .
             It is then that his beloved tries to kill the flea, but she is stopped. Donne then states that if she kills the flea she is not only killing the flea, but herself and him as well. He then states that the flea is their "marriage bed and marriage temple" in which they are united in the flea's "living walls." If she kills the flea, it is "sacrilege," because she would not only kill herself, but three. She ignores his plea and kills the flea, hence committing a sin.