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The Rhetorical Function of Carpe Diem in John Donne’s “Elegy XIX: To His Mistress Going to Bed” and “The Flea”
Carpe diem is a Latin term which is usually interpreted as meaning "seize the day". However, as indicated by the website, <http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/carpe-diem.html>, the phrase actually means "'enjoy the day, pluck the day when it is ripe'" (para. 2). Additionally, the author of the website notes the following: "The extended version of the phrase 'carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero' translates as 'pluck the day, trusting as little as possible in the future' (para. 2). Therefore, the term carpe diem connotes the idea of doing something in the present while one has time do so, and before that time runs out. Carpe Diem poetry was used primarily, especially within the seventeenth century, to woo or persuade a woman to have sex with a particular love interest. The rhetorical device of carpe diem was especially needed during that time period because a female maintaining her virginity until she was married was the virtuous thing to do. However, the personas within John Donne's poems "Elegy XIX: To His Mistress Going to Bed" and "The Flea" make their arguments very clearly (and convincingly) to their love interests despite the seventeenth century's social conventions. Donne utilizes the literary devices of imagery, diction, and metre to allow the personas in the poems "Elegy XIX: To His Mistress Going to Bed" and "The Flea" to bolster their argument of the maiden willingly giving up her virginity to make use of her short time of living in a joyous and pleasurable way.
John Donne uses the image of the flea in the poem, “The Flea” and its act of sucking both the of the lovers' blood in the poem to symbolize the sexual union, which is used by the persona to persuade his love interest to have sex with him. This point will be elucidated with the help of the following lines:
It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;
Thou know'st that this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead,
Yet this enjoys before it woo (ll. 2-6)
The first two lines show the persona using the image of the flea sucking the blood of the two lovers and the blood being “mingled” within the two lovers is being compared to the sex act where blood is sometimes shed especially when the female partner is a virgin, when the hymen is broken. The persona continues that since the intermingling of the blood is not a shameful act since there is no “sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead”. In other words, the persona is arguing that there is no loss of honor being that is taking place when they have sex. The persona adds that the flea enjoys this intermingling of the blood even before being persuaded or ‘wooed’ to do so. The persona adds further in lines 17 and 18 that if the maiden were to kill the flea, it would be like killing herself, her love interest, and their marriage bed. The persona adds that that would be “self-murder” or suicide or “sacrilege”, thus magnifying the sin of her refusal to accept his argument by going ahead to kill the flea, diminishing the significance of preserving her virginity or her “innocence” (l. 20). The last stanza illustrates that the love interest considers the persona’s argument to be ridiculous as she “[f]ind’st not [her] self, nor [lover]” who is now appeared to look “weaker” in intellect (l. 24). The persona adds that it is true that his “fears” were “false”; but he then moves on with his argument in the rhyming couplet to compare her “honor” to those false fears which would seem like nothing to be wasted when she “yield’st” to the lover (ll. 25-26). In the same manner that the “flea’s death” took life from her (l. 27). It should be Victorian era, the orgasm was referred to as the ‘little death’; thus, it can be inferred that the flea’s death is a symbol of the orgasm that the woman will receive she sexually takes away the life of her lover, which can be represented by the semen fluid which is ejected during ejaculation.
In her article, “’The Flea’ by John Donne” Kaye Anfield highlights the point that Donne employs the use of a literary devices known as “’conceits’” which are “metaphors that are intricately woven into the verse often used to express satire, puns, or deeper meanings within the poem” (para. 1). Donne uses these literary devices to highlight to assist the persona in supporting in his argument which is intended to persuade his love interest to make love to me. For instance, the very act of the flea sucking the blood of both lovers is being compared to the lover and their marriage bed, as indicated in lines 11 to 14: “Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,/Where we almost, nay more than married are./This flea is you and I, and this/Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is”. Anfield underscores the point in her article that Donne uses his metaphorical imagery to “’leap continually in a restless orbit from the personal to the cosmic and back again’” (para. 1). The persona in the poem uses an seemingly insignificant and “little” thing such as the flea to create a comparison between the lover's sexual relationship which he desires to have with his love interests, and in doing so envisages a cosmic union between the two. It is beleived that the persona hopes that his cosmic comparison between the flea sucking the blood of the two lovers and their supposed marriage bed would convince the lover to have sex with. It is as if the persona is saying the flea has already started the work of mingling their two bloods together, so they might as well follow the flea's example and takes this mingling further during the sexual act.
The persona is also implying to his lover that she might as well be pregnant with his child, in the following lines: “And pampered swells with one blood made two,/And this, alas, is more than we would do” (ll. 8-9). The persona is attempting to persuade his lover that since the flea is already ‘swollen’ with the blood each of their blood, the love interest might as well become ‘swollen’ or pregnant with his child.
In the poem, "Elegy XIX: To His Mistress Going to Bed", the poet allows the persona to employ the devices of puns, diction, and imagery to bolster his argument to persuade his love interest to have sex with him within this carpe diem poetry. For instance, the persona in the poem states the following in lines 11 to 12: "Off with that happy busk, which I envy,/ That still can be, and still can stand so high." Sandy Feinstein elucidates in her article “Donne’s ‘Elegy 19’: The Busk Between a Pair of Bodies” that the busk is a “rigid, dagger-shaped stay inserted in a corset to keep it stiff” (para. 1). Feinstein adds that the busk is a “phallic symbol” which was used during the seventeenth century to “control or prevent child bearing” (para. 1). Hence, the persona of the poem is ‘envious’ of the busk which is allowed to be so near the female body with its ‘stiffened’ appearance, which alludes to the male erection. Feinstein adds further that busk envy demonstrated by the persona can be equated to the idea of penis envy (para. 25). It can be concluded that the “happy busk” ‘stands’ between him gaining sexual dominance over his mate.
The diction within the poem, "Elegy XIX" adds to its erotic nature so as to seduce and sexually entice the persona's mate so that she can have sex with him, as illustrated by the following lines: " we easily know/By this these angels from an evil sprite: /Those set our hairs on end, but these our flesh upright [my emphasis]" (ll. 22-24). The italicized section of the quote not only alluding to the male erection, but it is also alluding to the erection of the female clitoris and also the stiffening of the woman’s nipples. The use of diction, in addition to puns and imagery, is continued in the following lines: "Full nakedness!/ All joys are due to thee,/ As souls unbodied unclothed must be/To taste whole joys" (ll. 33-35). The persona compares souls who are “unbodied” before they die and go to heaven to the act of sexual intercourse where the couple usually disrobe to enjoy or “taste” whole joys of sex. The phrase “taste whole joys” could allude to sexual act of cunnilingus, with the word “whole” being a pun on the word “hole” or the female vagina. Robert Hay concurs with this line of thought in his article, “Donne’s ‘To His Mistress Going to Bed’ Lines 33-35,” as evidenced by the following: “Surely.. Donne is punning on the word ‘whole’ as the female ‘hole’ revealed by nakedness” (para. 2).
The persona continues his argument by continuing his use of imagery but within the context of religion and/or spirituality, as depicted by the following lines: "Like pictures, or like books' gay coverings made/For lay-men, are all women thus arrayed;/Themselves are mystic books, which only we/(Whom their imputed grace will dignify)/Must see revealed" (ll.40-43) . The persona uses the words “lay-men” and “books’ gay coverings”, which is an allusion to the Bible, which lay men could not read it during John Donne’s time since it was written in Latin, and only the clergy could uncover it and read it. This might be alluding to the point that John Donne who was a member of the clergy, as revealed by Ansa Rosu in her article, “Poetry as Language Presentation: John Donne Poet, Preacher, Craftsman”, and by the lines: “only we [my emphasis]/ (Whom their imputed grace will dignify)/Must see revealed” ll. 40-42. It is almost as if the persona of the poem (who could be John Donne) is using his position as part of the clergy as a way of seeing his love interest being unveiled or disrobed. The persona is, evidently, using his religious status as a “[l]icense” to see his lover naked (l.25). It can be inferred that the persona wants it to be said that since he is a man of the cloth then the lady should find it perfectly alright to disrobe before him.
The persona's use of bawdy imagery goes even further, as evidenced by the following lines: "As liberally as to a midwife, show/ Thyself"(ll.43-44). This can be taken at face value which could mean that the persona wants his love interest to open up her legs in order to initiate the sex act; but the use of the word “midwife” connotes the idea that the persona wants to possibly impregnate his love interest. The persona even adds that there is "no penance due to innocence" (l. 45). In other words, the mate sexually yielding to the persona's demand will cost her honor because she is innocent as she is being persuaded skillfully by the persona to have sex with him. The persona goes further, and adds that he will teach her by being "naked first" (l. 46). The persona adds this thought when stating the final line: "what needst thou have more covering than a man?" (l. 47). This is the persona's final attempt at persuading his love interest to have sex with him. He wants her to mentally do the comparison to his body and arrive at the conclusion that her body should be revealed to show off its beauty.
In conclusion, the rhetorical device of carpe diem is bolstered and intensified in John Donne's "Elegy XIX" and "The Flea" by the use of imagery, diction, and puns so as to allow the persona to persuade the love interest to have sex with him. It should be noted, however, that in the poems there is no indication of that these literary devices were successful, but it does show the determination and the desperation of the personas to deflower their mistresses.
Works Cited
Anfield, Kate . " To His Mistris Going to Bed by John Donne, &The Elegy by A.D. Hope." Chalacyn Nights MUD Gateway. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. <http://www.chalacyn.com/~talyce/text/paper153.html>.
Anfield, Kate . "Poem: ‘The Flea’ by John Donne" Chalacyn Nights MUD Gateway. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. http://www.chalacyn.com/~talyce/text/flea.html.
Donne, John . "John Donne: Elegy XIX. To His Mistress Going to Bed." John Donne: Elegy XIX. To His Mistress Going To Bed. Harvard University, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. <http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~keith/poems/Elegy19.html>.
Donne, John . "The Flea." by John Donne : The Poetry Foundation. The Norton Anthology of Poetry, n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2013. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175764>.
Feinstein, Sandy . "Donne's "Elegy 19": The Busk Between a Pair of Bodies." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 34 .1 (1994): 61. Donne's "Elegy 19": The Busk Between a Pair of Bodies. Web. 30 Nov. 2013.
Ray, Robert H.. "Donne's to His Mistress Going to Bed, Lines 33-35." Explicator 50.4 (1992): n. pag. DONNE'S TO HIS MISTRESS GOING TO BED, LINES 33-35. Web. 30 Nov. 2013.
Rosu, Anca . "Poetry as Language Presentation: John Donne, Poet, Preacher, Craftsman." Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 16.1 (1985): 11-28. EScholarship: University of California. Web. 30 Nov. 2013.
