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The Flea
Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deny’st 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;
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pampered swells with one blood made of two,
And this, alas, is more than we would do
...

This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is;
Though parents grudge, and you, we’ are met,
And cloistered in these living walls of jet
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Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence?
Wherein could this flea guilty be,
Except in that drop which it sucked from thee?
Yet thou triumph’st and say’st that thou
Find’st not thyself, nor me, the weaker now;
‘Tis true; then learn how false fears be;
Just so much honour, when thou yield’st to me,
Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from
thee
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This makes Donne's argument or
seduction move convincing as the rhythm makes his point more prominent
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Argument of seduction- he varies the argument to suit himself
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This can be representative of
the Elizabethan three act play, which would have been very much a part of Donne's
life during the time the poem was written; the dramatic structure is also a feature of
the metaphysical poets rather than being just narrative or descriptive
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The formal structure can also be seen to represent the structure Donne uses in his
argument of seduction
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With
Dryden criticising the metaphysicals by stating that men should not use philosophical
ideas and debatory language in their love poems for fear of "perplexing the fairer
sex", Donne challenges this by giving the female character the courage of her
convictions, and speaking to her as though she has a brain and is capable of educated
thought, thus automatically challenging traditional love poetry
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It contrasts sharply to other
metaphysical poets such as Marvell, who wrote about more serious issues in a more serious
way, so Donne is challenging traditional love poetry
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The killing of the flea is insignificant- almost like a mini-drama
A woman is usually the other person in his poems but we never hear from them
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Three stanzas referencing the holy trinity- religious imagery and connotations
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Conceit- metaphysical method, like an intellectual metaphor
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Tradition of ‘flea’ love poems- Donne, like many, realised the erotic possibilities
‘Flea’ in French is close to the word for virginity

Stanza One
‘Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which deny’st me is
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He is showing authority which he eventually subverts- he is making a
case like a lawyer to convince her to sleep with him
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Immediately, Donne introduces the
metaphysical concept of the conceit; a brand of extended metaphor
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Thus the metaphysical context comes to play as, with the term 'conceit' being a synonym
for 'thought' at the time, the metaphor employed in the conceit was often completely
outrageous and ridiculous, such is the comparison between the mingling of blood in a flea to
the act of sexual intercourse
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Here, Donne uses the conceit of a flea to tempt his lover into giving him her
'maidenhead'
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This exhibits Donne as a
metaphysical poet; his aptitude for turning even the least likely of images into elaborate
symbols of love and romance
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The caesural
break, a feature of metaphysical poetry, creates a dramatic pause but also adds to the
opening rhythm of the poem; it is almost as if we picture him standing in court making his
argument
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‘It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea, our two bloods mingled be
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The
sexual references here contrast with the notion of sacrament at their union
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He furthers his argument of seduction by drawing
from the Anglican marriage vows, "Man shall be joined unto his wife and they two shall be
one flesh"
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Donne
talks literally of the fleas act of sucking their blood figuratively but he also suggests a sexual
act
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‘Thou know’st that this cannot be said,
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maiden head
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Their union is natural, due to
the flea and he argues that sex is also natural
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The use of religious imagery here
strengthens the speakers' argument to get the virgin into bed with him by referring to "sin"
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This, therefore, challenges traditional love
poetry and its attitudes to love as it acts almost as a playful confrontation for the female who
is unwilling to give up her virginity to the male persona
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’
It is clear here that the woman in the poem is not a prostitute
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not an Elizabethan sonnet bimbo who needs only to be told that her cheeks are like
roses in order to get her bodice unlaced'
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There is phallic
imagery in the word ‘swells’
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Donne uses double entendre, a metaphysical feature, here which
depicts the image of the fleas belly enlarging as it sucks the blood
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In his argument, the speakers
makes the point that because their bloods have mingled in the flea that this is actually more
severe than engaging in the act of sex
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'This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is;'
This emphasises he is like a lawyer in court, demonstrating his argument
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He paints the flea as holy as a suggestion that
there is already a spiritual union between the two
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This metaphysical
subject matter challenges traditional love poetry and its attitudes to love as the analogy is so
strange and unusual that it encourages the reader and, by extension, the female persona, to
consider the position of the characters and who is truly in power: the male poetic voice or the
female who will not give up her virginity too easily?
'Through parents grudge, and you, we are met,
And cloistered in these living walls in jet
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Nuns lived in
cloisters but were destroyed in the dissolution of the monasteries
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'Jet' is made from a compressed material
and gives the sense that the flea is pure black
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By comparing the shell of the flea to this,
Donne furthers the conceit and strengthens his argument of seduction
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'
This is made more serious as suicide was considered to be a serious sin
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Killing the flea would be considered an attack on something sacred
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Stubbs describes late Elizabethan
England as "an environment of change, theological uncertainty, play-going, linguistic
expansion and commercial exchange"
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Using the
metaphysical conceit, he heightens the sacredness of the bed in an attempt to pacify her into
sleeping with him
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It is in this that Stubbs wrote, "Donne's poetry 'performs
confidence' but usually also displays the weakness of its own arguments"
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She has her own opinion and
actions
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The
argument has been lost rhetorically
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Losing her virginity will have no effect on her
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He is powerless to do anything until she makes her decision
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