John Donne's Unusual Conceits: Bizarre Images or Thoughtful Comparisons? What exactly do a flea and the intense emotion of love have in common? Does the sun ever intrude on you and your lover while you're in bed? For most people these questions would attract nothing more than questioning or blank stares followed perhaps by a referral to one psychologist or another. However, if someone had asked the same questions to a young minister in 17th century London, he would suddenly have been inspired. This outstanding personality was the metaphysical poet John Donne. Many people debate whether the metaphysical style of Donne's verse is a genuinely contemplative comparison or simply eccentric imagery. However, if you examine his witty works such as "The Rising Sun" or "The Flea" deeply enough, you will find evidence to support both points of view. It has been said of Donne's love poetry that it "sometimes got lost in the fantastic and the absurd" (Grierson 25). Using his unusual conceits or far-fetched metaphors, John Donne uses his uncanny ability to draw a melancholic sigh of love from any reader by shocking and twisting the brain cells at the same time. It is this innovative method of combining so much passion and great intellect that pushes poets like TS Eliot to imitate him and others like Samuel Johnson to criticize him. An example of John Donne's words coming across as a thoughtful and truly intriguing comparison is presented in "The Sun Rising." In this composition, Donne presumptuously proclaims, "She is all states, and all princes, I, Nothing' something else is" (Lines 21-22). With this he so boldly declares that he and his own love are the center of the universe and all that is important (Carey 109). He goes on to say to the “rebellious sun”: “This bed is your center, these walls, your sphere” (line 30). From these lines we can see that Donne is describing love as an emotion that gives all power. He's telling us that being in love means a completeness, an obsession that makes everything else negligible. When the speaker asserts to the sun: "If his eyes have not blinded thine; look, and to-morrow late, tell me, whether both Indias of spices and soup Be where you left them, or lie here with me," (Lines 15-18), masterfully shows both the superiority of his loves and the inferiority of the sun.