The Flea

“To His Mistress Going to Bed” by John Donne (1633)

This Donne poem is a far more conventional and far more straightforward version of the dynamic between lovers explored in “The Flea”: specifically, the dynamic of a man eager to make love, the woman not so much. In this, the man is the pursuer, and his request to his lover to have sex now is so clear Donne feared publishing this. As in “The Flea,” one lover lays out the case for why they should have sex, but in this case the argument focuses on the seductive process of watching the woman removing clothes one sweet layer at a time. The language is soft and coaxing and lacks all the verbal twists, elaborate metaphors, and the wild irony of “The Flea.” Not surprisingly, it is much more erotic.

“To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell (1681)

One of Donne’s peers, another Elizabethan poet defined later as a Metaphysical poet, Marvell presents his own version of a lover frustrated by his lover’s refusal to engage in sex. Same agenda, but a far different strategy. Unlike Donne’s gross use of a predatory parasite, however, Marvell’s seduction is more coaxing, more delicate.