What exactly is sex? Is sex as simple as a flea bite, as essential as a vegetable, or as precious as India's jewels? To some it may be a "uniting in the living walls of a flea" or "remaing in the walls of one's bedroom". Regardless of what sex is, time plays a significant role in the consecration of it. In John Donne's "The Flea" and Andre Marvell's "To his coy mistress" the speakers toy around with the mind of their lover's attempting to scare or persuade them into intercourse. The authors have made a mockery of sex by stating consequences such as death. The desperate desire overpowers the speaker and the beauty of sex is thrown out. Where as in John Donne's "The Sun Rising" the speaker cherishes every moment with his lover and sees the real beauty of sex. By comparing the three works one will see that the similarities of sexual desire, time and persuasion and the different and argumentative views of what sex really is. A flea bite hurts and all the riches of the are wonderful, but what do they have to do with sex? A lot. One definition of sex, as stated in a dictionary is the instinctual attraction of one gender to another. The speaker of "The Flea" and "to his coy mistress would appreciate that definition. In "the flea" the speaker desires the virginity of a women. He argues that since they both have been bitten by a flea, the flea has already done more than sex so therefor sex is a small step compared to the mixing of their blood. At no time does the speaker verbalize the beauty of sex. In "to his coy mistress" it seems that his desire has lead him to blabber on and on about why his lover should agree to carnal knowledge. It seems that his idea of love is to say that he loves her for the possibility of her virginity. Once again the speaker shows no signs of the emotional beauty that sex should be about. Another definition cited in a seventh grade religion book is the mutual respect and love shared between two m...
