The Flea

Context

John Donne's Personal Life

• John Donne's personal experiences, including his secret marriage to Anne More and the resulting familial and financial struggles, heavily influenced his poetry. The Flea showcases Donne's characteristic blend of wit and sensuality, reflecting his complex views on love and relationships.
• Donne's early life as a courtier and his later life as a clergyman created a tension in his work between earthly desires and spiritual aspirations. This tension is evident in The Flea, which uses a seemingly trivial incident to explore deeper themes of love and morality.

Literary Context

• The Flea is part of Donne's Songs and Sonnets, a collection that exemplifies his metaphysical style. Metaphysical poetry is known for its intellectual playfulness, complex imagery, and elaborate conceits, all of which are prominent in this poem.
• The poem fits within the carpe diem tradition, urging the listener to seize the moment. However, Donne's approach is more cynical and playful compared to the earnestness often found in carpe diem poetry.
• Donne's use of a flea as the central metaphor in the poem is a prime example of his ability to draw surprising and intricate connections between seemingly unrelated concepts, a hallmark of metaphysical poetry.

Historical and Political Background

• The late 16th and early 17th centuries, when Donne was writing, were marked by significant religious and political upheaval in England. Donne's conversion from Catholicism to Anglicanism and his subsequent career in the Church reflect the broader religious conflicts of the time.
• Donne's poetry often subverts traditional themes and forms, reflecting the changing cultural and intellectual landscape of the period. In The Flea, he transforms a seemingly trivial and vulgar subject into a sophisticated argument about love and sexual union, challenging societal norms and expectations.
• The Renaissance era, with its emphasis on humanism, exploration, and the questioning of traditional beliefs, influenced Donne's intellectual and literary pursuits. The Flea reflects this spirit of inquiry and challenges to conventional norms, particularly regarding sexuality and morality.

Structure and Form

Form, Meter, and Rhyme

• The poem is composed of three nine-line stanzas.
• Each stanza contains six lines of rhyming couplets followed by a rhyming tercet.
• The meter alternates between iambic tetrameter and iambic pentameter in the couplets.
• The first line of the tercet is in iambic tetrameter, while the last two lines are in iambic pentameter.

Speaker and Setting

• The speaker is a man trying to convince his lover to sleep with him, using the flea as a metaphor for their sexual union.
• The setting is intimate and private, focusing on the physical closeness and the flea that has bitten both of them.

Poetic Devices

• Conceit: the central conceit of the poem is the comparison of the flea, which has bitten both the speaker and his lover, to their sexual union.
• This elaborate metaphor stretches throughout the poem, making the flea a symbol of their mingled blood and, by extension, their potential sexual relationship.
• Allusion: the poem makes several allusions to Christian beliefs and rituals, such as the Holy Trinity, suggesting that their union in the flea is as sacred as a marriage.
• Personification: the flea is personified as a lover and as a symbol of marriage, even described as their "marriage bed" and "marriage temple."
• Apostrophe: the speaker addresses his lover directly, treating her objections and her killing of the flea as part of his argument.
• Enjambment and End-Stop: the poem uses enjambment irregularly, often breaking lines in unexpected places to create a sense of urgency or emphasis.
• Most lines are end-stopped, giving the poem a meditative and controlled tone.
• Caesura: the use of caesura, or pauses within lines, often marks shifts in the speaker's argument or adds emphasis to particular words or ideas.
• Alliteration and Consonance: the poem employs both alliteration and consonance to create a musical quality, enhancing its persuasive power without being overtly literary.
• Assonance: used throughout the poem to create subtle musical effects, contributing to the overall tone and rhythm.

Key Themes

Sexuality and Seduction

"It sucked me first, and now sucks thee, / And in this flea our two bloods mingled be" (Lines 3-4)

• The poem challenges the social norms around virginity and marriage, using the flea as a symbol to argue that premarital sex is insignificant and should not be a source of shame.

Religion and Morality

"Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare, / Where we almost, nay more than married are" (Lines 10-11)

• The speaker invokes religious imagery and ideas, suggesting that their union is not only natural but also sacred, subverting traditional Christian values regarding sex and marriage.

Persuasion and Wit

"Just so much honor, when thou yield'st to me, / Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee" (Lines 26-27)

• The poem showcases Donne's wit and persuasive skill, using a seemingly trivial event (the flea bite) to construct a complex and audacious argument for seduction.

Line by Line Analysis

Lines 1-9

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 knowest 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.

"Mark but this flea, and mark in this,"

• The speaker directs his lover's attention to the flea, setting up the central conceit of the poem.
• "Mark" means to observe or pay attention.

"How little that which thou deniest me is;"

• He argues that the physical act she denies him is as insignificant as the flea.
• "Thou" is an informal way of addressing someone, suggesting familiarity.

"It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,"

• The flea has bitten both of them, mingling their blood inside its body.
• This is presented as a parallel to sexual union.

"And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;"

• The mingling of their blood in the flea symbolizes the union he desires.

"Thou know'st that this cannot be said / A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead,"

• The speaker argues that this mingling of blood is not sinful or shameful, just as the physical union would not be.
• "Maidenhead" means virginity.

"Yet this enjoys before it woo,"

• The flea enjoys their blood without any courtship, unlike them.

"And pampered swells with one blood made of two,"

• The flea, indulged with their blood, swells, a metaphor for sexual arousal.

"And this, alas, is more than we would do."

• The flea's freedom to mingle their blood is more than they are allowed.

Lines 10-18

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 that, self-murder added be, And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.

"Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,"

• The speaker pleads with his lover not to kill the flea, which now contains their combined lives.

"Where we almost, nay more than married are."

• He argues that the flea symbolizes their union, even more intimately than marriage.

"This flea is you and I, and this / Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is;"

• The flea becomes a symbol of their marriage bed and temple, blending secular and sacred imagery.

"Though parents grudge, and you, w'are met,"

• Despite societal disapproval, their union in the flea is secure.

"And cloistered in these living walls of jet."

• The flea's body, described as dark and protective, symbolizes their secret union.

"Though use make you apt to kill me,"

• The lover's habit of rejecting him may lead her to kill the flea.

"Let not to that, self-murder added be,"

• Killing the flea would be like killing themselves, or committing "self-murder."

"And sacrilege, three sins in killing three."

• It would be sacrilege to destroy the flea, which embodies their union.

Lines 19-27

Cruel and sudden, hast thou since Purpled thy nail, in the blood of innocence? Wherein could this flea guilty be, Except in that drop which it sucked from thee? Yet thou triumph, and sayest 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 to me, Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.

"Cruel and sudden, hast thou since / Purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence?"

• The lover kills the flea, and the speaker laments the act as cruel and sudden.
• "Purpled thy nail" refers to the bloodstained nail after crushing the flea.

"Wherein could this flea guilty be, / Except in that drop which it sucked from thee?"

• The flea is innocent, except for taking a drop of her blood.

"Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou / Find'st not thy self, nor me the weaker now;"

• She triumphantly argues that neither of them is harmed by the flea's death.

"'Tis true; then learn how false, fears be:"

• The speaker concedes this point to argue that her fears about losing her virginity are equally baseless.

"Just so much honor, when thou yield'st to me, / Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee."

• He concludes that she will lose no more honour by yielding to him than she did when killing the flea.