Essay Database

Many of John Donne's poems contain metaphysical conceits and intellectual reasoning to build a deeper understanding of the speaker's emotional state. A metaphysical conceit can be defined as an extended, unconventional metaphor between objects that appear to be unrelated. Donne is exceptionally good at creating unusual unions between different elements in order to illustrate his point and form a persuasive argument in his poems. By using metaphysical conceits in "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," Donne attempts …

…of sleeping with him. He insists that she will lose as little honor as she lost life from the flea. The reader can see that this speaker is very confident in his persuasive abilities because he says "when thou yield'st to me" instead of "if thou yield'st to me"(line 26). He knows that he will eventually win over his mistress because he is able to cleverly manipulate her actions and words to strengthen his point.