The Flea - John Donne

 

The Flea (John Donne)

John Donne, a famous metaphysical poet wrote “The Flea”. It was first published in 1633. The poem explains the speaker’s utmost desire to make love to his virgin lady. Throughout the poem, he develops a logical argument to persuade her. However, the popularity of the poem lies in its sensual theme and profound love of the speaker for his lady.

 

Summary :

Stanza One

1. "Mark but this flea.........is more than we would do".

The poet in the poem, ‘The Flea’ by John Donne, asks his beloved to observe the flea carefully and mark that what she denies to him is not of much significance. The flea sucked her blood and then sucked his. In this way, in its body, their respective blood are mixed up. She must acknowledge that this mingling of their blood in the body of the flea is neither sin, nor shame, nor loss of virginity. But the flea has enjoyed her without any wooing or courtship, and its body is now swelled up with the enjoying of their respective blood, which now mingles in its body. The body regrets that such direct enjoyment and consummation is not possible for human beings. The meaning of the very first word “Marke” is to observe carefully, while the use of the word “union” in the second line means the physical union which she has denied to him has been accomplished in the body of the flea. That is; all her shrinking from his advances has been of little avail to her. In the sixth line of the stanza, with the use of the word like maidenhead, he means to indicate the virginity of the beloved, whereas the meaning of line like: “With one blood made of two,” he means to be talking about their respective blood which mingle and become one in the body of the flea.

 

Stanza Two

2. "Oh stay, three lives..... three sins in killing three".

The beloved must not kill the flea because in its body they are more than married, for in its body her blood and his blood are mingled. Therefore, not only is the body of the flea, their wedding temple, but it is also their bridal bed. Their blood mingles in the body of the flea as they mingle in the sex-act, despite the objections of her parents and her own objections. They have been isolated from the world and have met in privacy within the four walls which make up its body. She should not kill the poor creatures, for it would be triple murder. She would kill the flea, as well as the poet whose blood it has sucked. It will also be a self- murder which is prohibited by religion. The killing of the flea would be sin and sacrilege; it would be three murders in one. In the second stanza, when the poet says, “Oh stay”, he means to say as the beloved gets ready to kill the flea, while the meaning of the word three lives is the life of the flea, of the lover and the beloved herself.

Stanza Three

3. "Cruel and sudden, hast thou since......as this flea’s death took life from thee".

As the beloved kills the flea, the lover calls her cruel and rash. She has purpled her nails with the blood of the innocent flea. What was the fault of the poor creature, except that it had sucked a drop of her blood? The beloved is triumphant and says that neither she nor her lover is in any way weaker for having killed it. This is perfectly true. From this, she should learn that her fears of losing her honor through yielding to the advances of her lover are false. Just as she has lost little life in the death of the flea which sucked her blood, so she will lose honor in yielding herself to him. When the poet says: “Purpled thy naile”, he means to say that the beloved has actually killed the flea and thus purpled her nails with innocent blood. And when he says: “’Tis true; then learn how false, fears be:” he means to be saying that since
she has not lost any honor from the flea’s sucking her blood, she should not fear that she should lose any honor from yielding to her lover, while the meaning of words like: “Will waste” means will be lost.

Major Themes in “The Flea”: Love, sex, and seduction are the major themes crafted in the poem. The poet used a persuasive conceit of flea to show how effectively this tiny insect unites them by sucking their blood. Also, this mingling of their blood does not involve any sense of shame, sin, or guilt. He persuades his beloved through logical reasoning, but fails in his attempts, because the lady kills the flea with her fingernail that signifies the death of the speaker’s sexual desires.

 

 

▪ Literary devices used in this poem has been listed below :

• Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line such as the sound of /i/ and /e/ in “Yet this enjoys before it woo” and /i/ sound “This flea is you and I, and this”.

• Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line such as the sound of /m/ in “Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is”.

• Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things using their five senses. For example, “How little that which thou deniest me is”; “Except in that drop which it
sucked from thee” and “And cloistered in these living walls of jet.” 

• Personification: Personification is to give human characteristics to inanimate objects. For example, the flea is personified in the eighth line as if human pampers it, “And pampered swells with one blood made of two.”

• Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between the objects different in nature. For example, “flea” as an extended metaphor to express his feelings of physical intimacy. Another example is seen in lines twelve and thirteen, “This flea is you and I, and this, our marriage bed, and marriage temple is”. Here the speaker compares mingling of blood with the act of consummating the marriage.

• Enjambment: Enjambment refers to the continuation of a sentence without the pause beyond the end of a line, couplet or stanza. For example, “Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence?”