John Donne loved language, women, and being an Anglican. Oh, and using very big words to talk about them. His opus focused on themes of love and devotion—both the physical and the spiritual kinds.

Donne also made serious bank writing poems in honor of wealthy dead people. His artistic patrons often commissioned long poems to commemorate the deaths of their loved ones. Perhaps this is why two of his most famous works deal with sex and death, respectively.

"The Flea"

The flea provides a delightful extended metaphor or conceit for, um. Getting into someone's pants. The speaker of this poem tries various tactics to get his love interest to reciprocate his feelings, all while using a little flea as his vehicle for wooing her.

Hey, it couldn't hurt, right? Well, it kind of stinks for the flea, actually. Womp womp.

"Death Be Not Proud"

Here, the speaker gives death one serious talking-to. Who, exactly, does death think he is, rolling into town like he owns the place and taking people's lives? The certainty that the speaker adopts in challenging death arises from Donne's deep religious roots.

He was a preacher, after all. And, to the very religious, death is not really a threat. Why? Death can only attack the human body, the speaker of this poem argues. The soul will always lie beyond death's reach.

Chew on This

The only thing Donne loved more than women and God was writing about these topics in complicated ways. Specifically, he loved using conceits like the one in "The Flea." That's definitely about a woman. But "Batter My Heart" (Holy Sonnet 14) tackles more spiritual topics. Put your eyeballs on that sonnet and see if Donne's metaphors hold water in that arena.

Now that you've got a bit of practice, see if you can wrangle Donne's conceit in "The Computation." What do you think: pretty straightforward? Or deceptively complex?