"Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her;.
If you can bounce high, bounce high for her too, .
Till she cry "Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover, .
I must have you!""- Thomas Parke D"Invilliers.
From the beginning of time, men have attempted to solve a mystery the answer to which always seems to be just out of their grasp: The Woman. Working with her, or simply trying to "communicate," with her can challenge even the most intelligent men. Following the elusive sent of a woman, men are constantly thrown off the circuitous trail that ultimately ends at the woman's heart- - and the nearby bedroom. Many consider poetry a sort of road map to the desired destination. John Donne's "The Flea," Robert Herrick's "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time," and Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress," all seem to have been written with one objective: to charm her into surrender. To ply her with sensual metaphors until she falls helplessly into his bed; but which poet's strategy proves most effective? It is possible through careful analysis, exfoliation, and gathering of various opinions, to determine which poet displays the firmest grasp of the female psyche and the most powerful wea!.
pons to win this battle.
By its title, one may assume that Donne's "The Flea" concerns nothing more than a blood sucking parasite; this, in fact, exposes his speakers strategy. In pointing out the far-fetched, yet ironically logical, similarities between sex and a fleabite, Donne's speaker hopes to coax his lover into pre-marital relations. .
MARK but this flea, and mark in this,.
How little that which thou deniest me is; .
It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee, .
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be. (1-4).
(This and all other references made to John Donne's "The Flea", Robert Herrick's "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time, and Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" are taken from Perrine's Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry Tenth Edition, copyright 2001, Harcourt College Publishers, Toronto.