Isn't it Ironic?

Although each of Donne's poems are about some sort of love, in two different situations. I liked both of them. When I read the first few lines of each, I thought that they would be difficult to read, or hard for me to comprehend, but in focusing on the feeling behind all the English words, I was able to really understand what Donne was saying.

I feel that it is very ironic to put these "three lives in one flea". A flea is a tiny little insect that feasts on blood, and to use that to show how these two people have become one within this flea because it holds both their blood is very odd. He sees this flea as making them one, which giving her virginity to him would also do. If the flea has already made them one, why not have sex? Also, if the blood within the flea has already made the "two bloods mingled", and that makes them one, this flea holds the marriage between them. As she holds on to her virginity, and stays without sin, Donne continues to seduce her. In knowing that she is trying to keep her morals, he uses killing this flea as sacrilegious because she would be committing murder. She would not only be killing the flea, but Donne and herself. So after the flea's life is taken, Donne goes on to say that as easy as it was for her to kill the flea, so easy it would be to give herself up to him. This all affects the poem by giving a sense of desperation of Donne to have sex with this woman. So desperate as to say that they are married by the joining of their blood within a flea. He even uses her faith, and her want to stay pure as a weapon for himself in saying that killing the flea would be sacrilegious, making her impure, sin full, or even a murderer. I think that the speaker is going a little overboard in trying to get this woman to have sex with him.

Deffering Dreams

Q.) What does the last line of Hughes's "Dream Deferred" imply? What does Hughes see as the consequences of a dream deferred?

1.) I really liked this poem. I loved the intensity, and the detailed description of what Hughes thinks comes of deferred dreams. I do believe in dreams coming true, and I think that when you think about something so much that you dream about it, you should do whatever you can to make those dreams become real. I think that if you just let your dreams just remain dreams, it remains unreachable, it "festers like a sore" if you will, as Hughes quotes. This poem was not hard for me to read at all, and it was easy for me to see into Hughes' outlook on dreams.

2.) The last line in Hughes' "Dreams Deferred" gives a definite end to this "dream". This dream that has "dried up", "festered", "rotted", and "crusted" has exploded. This dream that has formed and has been added up from someones desires has ceased to be. It has disintegrated. Hughes implies that he thinks that if you deffer your dreams, it will no longer be with you. You'll have nothing to reach for. Hughes thinks that this putting off your dreams will only lead to the absence of the dream all together. You can put your dreams on the back burner, but while it's just sitting there, you move on from that, and that dream doesn't become real, it could explode. When you go back and try to remember those "deferred dreams", when you try to recall those intense wants withing your heart at one point in your past, it will seem impossible. It's no longer there.