Comparing Poems 'Whoso List To Hunt And The Flea'

Poems, which are short entry writings that express strong emotions and feelings, are meant to be soothing to someone’s ears. However, in some cases, the poems are not so calming. “Whoso List to Hunt” by Sir Thomas Wyatt, and “The Flea” written by John Donne, are two pieces of poetry that were written in a way that are not so pleasant to the ear. The poems were written nearly a year apart. Even in a year’s time, poets did not change the way that they describe love and feelings for someone, and in this case, women. After analyzing the two poems, they both contain many different uses of literary terms, and philosophies. Sir Thomas Wyatt wrote the short poem, “Whoso List to Hunt” in order to portray a man’s want to acquire a lady figure in his …show more content…
Personification is the bringing to life of an inanimate object in which Donne uses in order to bring the flea to life. The flea is a symbol of their two bodies coming together because the flea bit him and then her. The mixing of their blood is used as a tool for the man to let the woman know that she is no longer a part of maidenhood. This meaning that the woman, and the man, are both no longer sexually innocent; Their bloods have mingled together inside the flea. Donne, known for his use of the sacred and profane, uses this method throughout the poem. He does this by taking the flea, a putrid parasite, and using it to portray the lovely and happy emotion and feeling of love. The love serves as the sacred, which is pure, and the flea functions as the profane, the unholy and impure. Donne uses the metaphor that the flea holds onto its own life, her life, and his life. This is a direct metaphor to the creation of a new being, meaning that with their bloods mixing inside of the flea, they have a “flea baby.” John Donne uses rhyming couplets throughout his poem in his iambic pentameter. The narrator does indeed get lucky with the woman. Even though the storyteller uses a flea to persuade the lady, during the time that the piece was composed, people were not squeamish when it came to tiny bugs. Back then, it was more than likely …show more content…
In both stories, the use of metaphor is clear throughout out the whole poems. In “The Flea”, the comparison of the flea’s life, the woman’s life, and the narrator’s life, to the making of a new human is what the narrator is using to lure the woman in with by telling her that because the flea has bitten them both, they have already achieved intercourse. In “Whoso List to Hunt,” the metaphor usage is still about catching that perfect woman. In this case, the man is making a comparison by comparing hunting to finding a woman. The woman is portrayed as deer, which tells us that she is being used as a symbol. The same goes for the flea which is being used as a symbol for love and/or intercourse. Another aspect that the two poems have in common, is their use of objects that have no purpose. Fleas have absolutely no purpose to them, and well as someone who spend their “time in vain” (“Whoso List to Hunt, line 10). Spending time in vain means that someone has no purpose, and it clearly unhappy. As far as differences are concerned, only a few of them exist throughout the two stories when they are side by side. For example, in “The Flea,” the man already has the woman. He is simply trying to convince her to sleep with him. In “Whoso List to Hunt,” the man is hunting the woman. He is still searching for her, and has not had any contact with her. John Donne’s use