"The Flea" by John Donne

                                                               

“The Flea” by John Donne is a humorous poem about a man trying to seduce a woman with persuasion. Each space between stanzas is related to an action taken by the woman which the speaker responses. 

Stanza One

The poem's speaker, in an effort to woo a lady and convince her to sleep with him, discusses how a flea has bitten them both and mingled their blood, a euphemism for intercourse. The speaker claims there is no "sin; nor shame; nor loss of maidenhead."

Stanza Two

The speaker, once again, attempts to persuade the object of his affection by claiming that since their blood has already been mingled in the flea, they might as well, therefore, mingle their blood amorously.

Stanza Three

he object of the speaker's affection has killed the flea, an apparent sign of rejection that the speaker turns to his favor by explaining that the mingling of blood has made neither of them weaker, much in the same way yielding to each other will not make them weaker.

The poem is a dramatic monologue which means that there is one speaker that speaks to the audience. Because of this, we hear only one point of view. This is the poet speaking in the second voice according to Eliot’s interpretations of the three voices of poetry.

When we think of a flea a pesky irritating insect comes to mind. The poet has given a new metaphorical meaning to the flea by making new associations with it. The flea is a symbol of union and marriage and so, Donne does what Shelley speaks of in his essay ‘Defence of Poetry’:

“Their language is vitally metaphorical; that is it marks the before unapprehended relations of things, and perpetuates their apprehension, until words which represent them become through time signs for portions and classes of thoughts, instead of pictures of integral thoughts; and then, if no new poets should arise to create afresh the associations which have been disorganized, language will be dead…”