The Flea BY John Donne

 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.

 

Summary

"The Flea" is metaphysical poem written by John Donne. The speaker tries to seduce his mistress in this poem..

The setting of this poem seems to be a bedroom and the speaker is a lover. He is desperate to sleep with his beloved. He wants to break her virginity before their marriage. At the same time, the flea bites both of them and mingles their blood in its body. The speaker argues that mingling their blood inside the flea's body is not less than a marriage. He says losing virginity is not a shame or dishonour. Having sex is not dishonourable act. But the lady suddenly kills the flea. He calls her cruel and insensitive lady. He argues that killing the flea means killing three lives and committing suicide. It is also a suicide because there is her blood too inside the flea's body. He says that the flea has enjoyed without any courtship or marriage. So, he convinces that having sex is not considered any loss of honour; there is neither any sin, nor shame, nor loss of virginity in it. He persuades her not to be afraid of the society.

The poem challenges the marriage as a social institution. It challenges social norms of sexuality and tries to create space for sexual pleasure beyond the boundaries of marriage. The lover pushes his mistress against the values of his society, which prized female virginity and pressured women to preserve it until marriage. But, the speaker takes sex as a holy act. He uses the reference of Christianity to support his argument. He says the flea has three lives which means the flea contains the blood of the speaker, the mistress, and of the flea itself. But it's also an allusion to the Holy Trinity: the Father (God), the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Ghost.