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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,
“The Flea” is a poem by the English poet John Donne, most likely written in the 1590s. In “The Flea,” the speaker tries to seduce his mistress with a surprising (and potentially gross) extended metaphor : both he and she have been bitten by the same flea, meaning their separate blood now mingles inside the flea’s body.
- Analysis, Stanza by Stanza
- John Donne’s Originality
- Basic Conceit in The Flea
- Attitude Towards Love
Stanza One
The poet in the poem, ‘The Flea’ by John Donne, asks his beloved to observe the flea carefully and mark that what she denies to him is not of much significance. The flea sucked her blood and then sucked his. In this way, in its body, their respective blood are mixed up. She must acknowledge that this mingling of their blood in the body of the flea is neither sin, nor shame, nor loss of virginity. But the flea has enjoyed her without any wooing or courtship, and its body is now swelled up with...
Stanza Two
The beloved must not kill the flea because in its body they are more than married, for in its body her blood and his blood are mingled. Therefore, not only is the body of the flea, their wedding temple, but it is also their bridal bed. Their blood mingles in the body of the flea as they mingle in the sex-act, despite the objections of her parents and her own objections. They have been isolated from the world and have met in privacy within the four walls which make up its body. She should not...
Stanza Three
As the beloved kills the flea, the lover calls her cruel and rash. She has purpled her nails with the blood of the innocent flea. What was the fault of the poor creature, except that it had sucked a drop of her blood? The beloved is triumphant and says that neither she nor her lover is in any way weaker for having killed it. This is perfectly true. From this, she should learn that her fears of losing her honor through yielding to the advances of her lover are false. Just as she has lost littl...
The poem, ‘The Flea’ by John Donne is one of the best lyrics of Donne’s poems. Flea was a very popular subject for ribald and amatory poetry during the Renaissance. In this respect, the Renaissance poets imitated Ovid who has a poem on the subject. Such poets envied the flea for it had a free excess to the body of the beloved, but such excess was d...
In of his most renowned conceits, Donne compares the body of the flea to a temple and a marriage-bed. As the beloved makes ready to kill the flea, the lover asks her to stay and not to kill the poor creature. Their two types of blood have been united together in its body, as they are united through marriage in a church. So, its body is a temple in ...
By the third stanza, the beloved has already killed the innocent flea. Yet, the innocent creature was guilty of no other crime except that of the sucking of their respective blood. The beloved herself admits that the loss of a drop of blood which the flea sucked has in no way made her weak. She has also lost no honor in this way. Since she would lo...
The Flea" is an erotic metaphysical poem (first published posthumously in 1633) by John Donne (1572–1631). The exact date of its composition is unknown, but it is probable that Donne wrote this poem in the 1590s when he was a young law student at Lincoln's Inn , before he became a respected religious figure as Dean of St Paul's ...
After arguing that sex is as small a thing as a flea bite, the speaker complains that the flea is able to suck blood from the young woman without having to woo her first. He, on the other hand, must exert effort to seduce her.
“The Flea” is an erotic poem in which the speaker, following the tradition of carpe diem poetry, attempts to convince his mistress to have sex with him. He does so by developing a shocking conceit based on a flea that has just bitten both him and his mistress.
A summary of “The Flea” in John Donne's Donne's Poetry. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of Donne's Poetry and what it means. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans.
