Scent Of A Woman

11 Pages 2776 Words

fears be; / Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me, / Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee”(25-27). The speaker has skillfully trapped his mistress. When agreeing that they both indeed survived the killing of the flea, he capitalizes on the situation by explaining that her fears of sex are false since sex involves no greater loss of blood and no greater death. Then, strategically, the speaker ends the poem without giving his lover a chance to refute his clever rebuttal.
The rhythm of the poem flows easily throughout, in an alternating iambic tetrameter/pentameter scheme, with all stanzas ending in pentameter couplets. The diction remains conversational as the speaker unabashedly renounces his lover’s feelings without any concern for her thought or belief. While the idea of lessening the significance of sexual activity might entice a woman, logic concurs that such an argument should not be made in a brazen, condescending tone, for fear that, no matter how clever the argument, the woman will cease to ...