More Close Reading! - Capitalization in Donne's "The Flea"

When I read that this week would give me an opportunity to ruminate on any of the readings in the past five weeks, I found myself relieved. In the past two weeks with the close reading assignments, I’ve really gotten a clearer understanding of the texts we’ve been studying. I found the differences between the Norton and the manuscript versions really interesting and eye-opening. The manuscript versions of some of the poems can definitely be read completely differently than the Norton Anthology’s versions, due to spelling and capitalization alone. When we had to close read and respond in 75 words or less, it was really hard for me to limit myself – I felt like I had so much to comment on! I’ll take this week as an opportunity to ruminate on this and compare the differences between a manuscript version and a Norton anthology version of a poem – specifically, “The Flea” by John Donne.

The Norton Anthology version of “The Flea,” written in a type of English we’re (more) familiar with and using conventional capitalization and grammar rules, comes across as a very tongue-in-cheek, sexual poem. In reading this poem, I found myself the most concerned with the sexual implications of Donne’s use of the flea. In this poem, the flea contains both the blood of the narrator and his lover, mingled, so the narrator pleads with his lover to spare its life. While there are also mentions of sin and marriage (or a thereof), I got the impression that Donne was brushing these ideas off – sin and marriage don’t concern him and his lover.

However, in the manuscript version, selective capitalization has made me second-guess this. Both “Sinne” and “Maydenhead” (or virginity) are capitalized, as well as “Marriage,” “Parents,” and “Sacriledge.” I feel that capitalization usually implies some sort of respect or importance for the word being used, implying that Donne is not as cavalier about these ideas as he implies. Is Donne actually anxious about these ideas and how they fit into his actions with this woman? In the poem, Donne is really anxious that his lover will kill the flea? Donne expresses concern that if she kills the flea, she kills the both of them. Is Donne worried that the ideas of “Sinne” and “Marriage” will catch up with their affair? Will they both eventually have to suffer the consequences?

The word “flea” is also capitalized, though not consistently throughout the poem. In the first stanza, flea is lowercase when Donne says, “And in this flea our two blouds mingled be.” However, in the second stanza, Donne capitalizes “flea” when equating it directly with him and his lover. He states, “The Flea is you and I.” I think that this implies that Donne’s capitalization of words implies importance. When he is referring to the flea as an actual flea, he doesn’t capitalize, yet when he directly equates the flea with him and his lover, a relationship between two human beings, he capitalizes the word.