The Flea (Poem) by John Donne: Analysis and Structure
The Flea (Poem) by John Donne is erotic metaphysical poetry with a conceit or lengthy argument. The male speaker wishes to make love to a resisting lady.
The Flea (Poem)
The modest flea takes the lead, sucking the speaker first, then the woman. Their blood is mixed with the flea, which represents a sexual connection.
The poet-lover invites his sweetheart to attentively inspect the flea in the first line of ‘The Flea.’ She should note that it swallowed his blood first, then hers and that their blood mingled in its body as it does during sexual intercourse.
The flea has had a relationship with her without any courting or marriage. However, this is not regarded as a loss of honor; there is no sin, humiliation, or loss of virginity in it.
In this regard, the flea outperforms them. She is able to do so, i.e. enjoy the pleasure of physical connection, which lovers cannot have before marriage.
The Flea
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,
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pampered swells with one blood made of two,
And this, alas, is more than we would do.
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 to that, self-murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.
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 thy self, nor me the weaker now;
’Tis true; then learn how false, fears be:
Just so much honor, when thou yield’st to me,
Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee.
by John Donne
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Summary and Analysis, Stanza by Stanza
Stanza One
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,
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pampered swells with one blood made of two,
And this, alas, is more than we would do.
In John Donne’s poem “The Flea,” the poet encourages his sweetheart to attentively watch the flea and note that what she denies to him is unimportant. The flea drained her blood before sucking his. As a result, their blood gets mingled together in its body.
The flea, on the other hand, has experienced her without any wooing or courtship, and its body is now swollen with the enjoyment of their respective blood, which now mingles in its body. The body laments the fact that such immediate delight and consummation are not attainable for humans.
The meaning of the first word “Marke” is to attentively watch, however, the usage of the term “union” in the second sentence suggests that the bodily union she has denied him has occurred in the body of the flea.
Stanza Two
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 mariage 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 to that, self-murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.
The loving must not kill the flea since they are more than wedded in its body, as her and his blood are mixed. As a result, the body of the flea serves as both their wedding temple and their bridal bed.
Despite her parents and her own concerns, their blood mingles in the flea’s body as they mingle in the sex act. They have been cut off from the outside world and have met in private within the four walls that comprise its body.
It would be triple murder if she killed the unfortunate creatures. She would kill both the flea and the poet whose blood it had sucked. It will also be a form of self-murder, which is forbidden by religion. Killing the flea would be both sinful and sacrilegious; it would be three murders in one.
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Stanza Three
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 thy self, nor me the weaker now;
’Tis true; then learn how false, fears be:
Just so much honor, when thou yield’st to me,
Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee.
The lover accuses the beloved of being cruel and hasty as she kills the flea. She has purpled her nails with the innocent flea’s blood. Except for sucking a drop of her blood, what was the unfortunate creature‘s fault?
The beloved is victorious, claiming that neither she nor her boyfriend is any weaker for having slain it. This is entirely correct. This should teach her that her concerns of losing her honor by submitting to her lover’s overtures are unfounded.
She will lose dignity in submitting herself to him, just as she has lost little life in the death of the flea that drank her blood. When the poet writes, “Purpled thy naile,” he is referring to the beloved killing the flea and thereby purpleing her nails with innocent blood.
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Form and Structure
This poem alternates metrically between iambic tetrameter and iambic pentameter lines, with a 4-5 stress pattern concluding with two pentameter lines at the conclusion of each stanza. As a result, the stress pattern in each of the nine lines is 454545455.
In each stanza, the rhyme pattern is similarly regular, in couplets, with the final line rhyming with the final couplet: AABBCCDDD.
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