Identify the page number of the page you are analyzing. Find something related to its possible symbol, character, theme or lesson, or mood setting.Explain why it interests you and what meaning you derive from it.

“The Flea” by John Donne

Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is;
It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;
Thou know’st that this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead,
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pampered swells with one blood made of two,
And this, alas, is more than we would do.

Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, nay more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is;
Though parents grudge, and you, w’are met,
And cloistered in these living walls of jet.
Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that, self-murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.

Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence?
Wherein could this flea guilty be,
Except in that drop which it sucked from thee?
Yet thou triumph’st, and say’st that thou
Find’st not thy self, nor me the weaker now;
’Tis true; then learn how false, fears be:
Just so much honor, when thou yield’st to me,
Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee.

Source: The Norton Anthology of Poetry (1996)

1. Choose and analyze one entire page from each of the five acts in “Hamlet” (PDF of the play is attached).

Identify the page number of the page you are analyzing. Find something related to its possible symbol, character, theme or lesson, or mood setting.Explain why it interests you and what meaning you derive from it.

2. For the John Donne poem, do the same. Select and identify the line numbers and analyze one of the four learning points. Make three distinct points in your analysis.

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