The Flea

WzDD's HSC Info: 2Unit Related English: John Donne

The Flea

Marke but this flea, and marke in this,

How little that which thou deny'st me is;

Me it suck'd first, and now sucks thee,

And in this flea our two bloods mingled bee;

Confesse it, this cannot be said

A sinne, or shame, or losse of maidenhead,

Yet this enjoyes before it wooe,

And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two,

And this, alas, is more than wee would doe.

Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,

When we almost, nay more than maryed 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 cloysterd in these living walls of Jet.

Though use make thee apt to kill me,

Let not to this, selfe murder added bee,

And sacrilege, three sinnes in killing three.

Cruell and sodaine, has thou since

Purpled thy naile, in blood of innocence?

In what could this flea guilty bee,

Except in that drop which it suckt from thee?

Yet thou triumph'st, and saist that thou

Find'st not thyself, nor mee the weaker now;

'Tis true, then learne how false, feares bee;

Just so much honor, when thou yeeld'st to mee,

Will wast, as this flea's death tooke life from thee.

Glossary

Jet - a deep, glossy black stone. This is of course a reference to the colour of a flea, and is especially strong imagery when one compares the lifeless stone with the "living walls".

Sodaine - violent.

Overall explanation

My copy of the poem notes that "Fleas were a popular subject for jocose[humorous] and amatory[love] poetry in all countries at the Renaissance". Their popularity stems from an event that happened in a literary salon (a place where poets and others came to recite poetry and converse). The salon was run by two ladies, and on on occasion

a flea happened to land upon one lady's breast. The poets were amazed at the creature's audacity, and were inspired to write poetry about the beast. It soon became fashionable among poets to write poems about fleas.

In this poem, the "I" of the poem is lying in bed with his lover, and trying to get her to give her virginity to him. (It could, of course, quite easily be a FEMALE "I" trying to seduce a MALE, but I will stick with one for convenience). While lying there, he notices a flea, which has obviously bitten them both. Since the 17-century idea was of sex as a "mingling of the blood", he realises that by mixing their bloods together in its body, the flea has done what she didn't dare to do.

Then, he argues, since the flea has done it, why shouldn't they? To back up his argument, he refers to the marriage ceremony, which states that "man and woman shall be one flesh". He argues that since they have mingled their bloods and are therefore "one blood", they are practically "one flesh" and are therefore married!

Not only does that reinforce his seduction argument, but it also provides ammunition for him to defend himself when the female does the next logical thing and moves to kill the flea. Donne argues that by spilling his blood and hers by killing the flea, she is practically committing murder. Not only that, but by breaking the holy bond of marriage she is committing sacrilege!

However, the flea finally is killed, and the poet is forced to change tactics. There, he argues, killing the flea was easy, and as you say it hasn't harmed us - well, yielding to me will be just as easy and painless.

This poem borrows a lot of religious imagery, because