Poetry Reading Journal: "The Flea"

 

INSTRUCTIONS

In your Poetry Reading Journal document, answer the following questions, giving examples/quotations from the poem to support or explain your answers.  Remember that when you quote from a poem, you give the line numbers in parenthesis.  If quoting two or more lines, use a slash to indicate a line break.  Example:  "And you laugh back nor can you ever see/The thousand little deaths my heart has died"(7-8).

Create a heading with the title of the poem.  Then answer the questions below.

 

QUESTIONS

  1. Describe the situation in this poem.
  2. What lines help you imagine what the speaker is doing as he speaks? 
  3. What lines help you imagine what the auditor is doing?
  4. How does this work fit into the tradition of carpe diem poetry?
  5. Would you term "The Flea" a dramatic monologue ( see TOPIC: Speaker and Voice)?  Why or why not?