Explication: Answer 1
“The Flea,” which is a classic metaphysical poem by 17th century author John Donne, is not only a strong
conceit for sex and the mingling of blood, but it also strongly connotes the sexual deviance Donne was
exposed to at the time. In a subversive manipulation of the language, Donne interchanges the structure
of words to show the metrical conversation of forcing a sexual interaction, an unwanted and violent act.
This poem alternates metrically between lines in iambic tetrameter and lines in iambic pentameter,
which is a 4-5 stress pattern ending with two pentameter lines at the end of each stanza. Thus, the
stress pattern in each of the nine-line stanzas is 454545455. The rhyme scheme in each stanza is
ostensibly regular, in couplets, with the final line rhyming with the final couplet: AABBCCDDD. The
metrical structure itself creates a flux between the man and the woman in the conversation about sex.
The argument is rhythmic; it bounces back and forth between the logical and the emotional, turning the
gender dynamic in a perverse turning of the sexual relationship between the two characters. The
speaker of the poem declares “mark this flea, and mark in this/how little that which thou deniest me is.”
In the context of rhythmic structure, the line invariably changes between the reason why she should
consent to a sexual relationship and its proportion of the flea as an example of its importance. Hence,
the flea’s size relates to the size of the woman’s denial—her reasoning is inconsistent, and with the
alternating pentameter to tetrameter pattern, forces both the female and the audience to see more
power in the male’s argument for the sexual relationship. In the first stanza, the speaker, through the
use of logic, argues that “and in this flea our two bloods mingled be,” and then the “sin” of the loss of
her “maidenhead” alludes to the loss of virgin blood. The flea, in this case, has sucked the blood of both
the lovers, and this small amount of blood is equivalent to the amount of blood the female will lose with
the loss of her virginity. His manipulation of the linguistic structure in the first stanza and the subversion
of the importance of virginity create an argument where the feminine is forced into submission by the
male logic.
The second stanza continues the conceit, where the female’s power becomes more structurally subdued
by the male logic. In the first line, the speaker exudes “O stay, three lives in one flea spare/where we
almost, yea, more than married are.” This sudden elaboration of the previous argument calls upon the
divine trinity to force the female into the position of submission. The use of the words “three” and
“one” manipulate the structure of the language to create a unity between the man, woman, and the
flea. The use of enjambments in the line “this flea is you and I, and this/our marriage bed” rushes the
metrical pattern into sudden movements. No longer is the poem a seduction—it becomes far more
forceful in its speed, strength, and emotion. The faster the stanza moves, the more forceful it seems to
become more forceful, almost as if the female is fighting the submission—she is “cloister’d in these
living walls of jet,” trapped in the confines of social expectations. His two principle metaphors in this
stanza, blood as marriage, and the blood as the combination and intermingling of the speaker and his
lover, creates a justification for the forceful premarital sex the speaker is about to undertake with his
lover. With this level of justification, and the rushed level of the structure of the poem, the man
forcefully places the girl into an act of submission she cannot escape. Her emotional protection is not
given any level of credit because logic has beaten her down. The emotional level begins to rise, and
“Though use make you apt to kill me,/Let not to that self-murder added be,/And sacrilege, three sins in
killing three” illustrates a struggle. He demands her not to kill the flea, just as he commands her to deny
her preconceived religious notions in favor of his argument, forcing her into a corner where she is
unable to escape.
The speaker furthers his rushed argument by demanding that the female lover should not have “purpled
thy nail in blood of innocence,” which has two possible interpretations. It could be read as the female
smashing the flea, or it could allude to the sexual struggle of forcing sex upon the female, where she
could scratch him, resisting his advances. In the “drop which it suck’d from thee?” the elision of “suck’d”
not only creates a higher rhythmic metrical pattern of the last stanza, but also references the blood that
could have been taken from stripping the girl of her virginity. When the speaker says “yet thou
triumph’st,” she may have fought him off. The speed of the meter slows down, and the speaker
declares, “when thou yield’st to me,/will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee.” The speaker
discounts her hesitation and resistance of his sexual advances, by saying that her convictions of the
consummation of their relationship are simply “fears” and the fears are completely disregarded because
the blood has already been combined and thus destroyed with the death of the flea. The speaker is
defeated with the enjambed last line “yield'st to me,/Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.”
The use of the word “yield” is again a forceful connotation of the perverse action he has performed
upon the girl. The flea’s living incarnation is now dead, just as his sexual encounter with the girl and its
possibilities are also dead.
Donne’s structure of “The Flea” is an extremely sensual poem, though with the structure and metrical
flow, the poem emphasizes the violence and forceful relationship in the act of sex. Sex, in the context of
the poem, is far from sensual and delicate—it is violent, obstructed, and painful. Therefore, the act the
speaker wishes to perform with his lover is a rape, an overthrow of the will of God, the trinity, and the
girl’s convictions. It can only be assumed that Donne’s violent imagery alludes to his own possible
hesitation to violate religious law and emotional sanctity with the bodily violation sex offers—marital or
otherwise.
Answer 2: “The Flea” is a poem written by John Donne in the 16th century. This poem is a prime
example of the kind of work done by what would later be called the metaphysical poets. Other poets of
the time associated with this group include George Herbert, Richard Shaw, and Andrew Marvell among
others. These poets were famous for surprising their readers with vivid imagery, a blending of secular
and religious subjects, and, especially relevant to “The Flea,” conceits that establish a persuasive
argument (poets.org). In this poem Donne explains away many of the conservative mores regarding
love and its physical manifestation through a logical conceit that stays with the reader due to its
opposition with the beauty normally associated with themes on love and faith. In so doing he not only
creates a sound argument, but he also uses religious imagery to give the speaker’s mate little to no
appeal to refuse whether through logic, religious conservatism, or family pressure. Donne is able to
strengthen this argument through the form and content of the poem. To begin to appreciate all the
nuances of this poem, however, it is first useful to begin with a literal approach to Donne’s argument.
The first stanza establishes the foundation for his argument. The speaker comments to his
would-be lover that a flea that bites her and then bites him represents the ease with which the two of
them could have sex. During the time Donne wrote this poem sex was defined as a mixing of blood, so it
follows that what the flea has done is analogous to their having sex. Donne writes, “And in this flea our
two bloods mingled be” (ln 4). He argues that one can hardly call this sinful or shameful, yet it is the
closest the speaker and his love have come to actually having sex. In the second stanza the speaker
likens the flea to their marriage bed. The speaker also admits that there are obstacles in the way of
their love such as their parents. The speaker warns the girl that killing the flea is like killing parts of all
three of them—the speaker, his mate, and the flea. The third stanza represents the speaker’s most
coercive argument. In it his mate kills the flea, which is evidenced by the speakers question, “…hast
thou since/ Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence (ln 20)?” It is at this point that the reader hears
anything from the woman at all, and this is only through the speaker’s explanation. She claims that
killing the flea didn’t hurt either of them despite it having some part of both of them inside of it. The
speaker uses this argument to fuel his last claim that if the killing of the flea does no damage to the two
of them, then her consenting to have sex with him will not hurt them either. It is certainly possible that
the speaker may be a woman and the mate a male, as there is no explicit evidence either way. The logic
exhibited in this poem is fairly sound, but what make this poem especially compelling are the ways in
which Donne crafted the form, the images he used, and the way in which he utilizes a logical conceit in
matters of love, which is traditionally not based on logic.
This poem is comprised of three stanzas of nine lines each. In this way the stanzas are similar to
a Spenserian stanza, but there is no regular meter. Some criticized Donne’s poetry for this lack of
metrical pattern. The first two stanzas both have shortened and offset lines at their ends. This is
significant, as they represent a shift in the conversation. In the first stanza, the speaker states the logical
conclusion to the lack of shame in the flea partaking on both of their bodies. The shift in the second
stanza occurs between the defense that the flea is like a marriage bed and a plea not to kill the flea, as it
is like killing all three of them. The third stanza also has a similar shift, and it is significant that the lines
appear uniform despite the previous two stanzas. In this way the three stanzas appear as an equation of
sorts. Variable A plus variable B equals the conclusion. The shortened lines give the first two a look on
incompleteness, where the third looks like a tidy whole. The rhyme scheme also works to add a feeling
of balance and unity to his argument. Most of the end rhyme is regular, and as it is read these rhymes
work to tie the whole thing together. Lines rhyme like couplets and tercets, yet there is not a consistent
rhyme pattern throughout the poem. Rhymes are interspersed throughout all three stanzas. For
instance lines two and three rhyme with lines 16 through 18, 21 and 22, and lines 25 through 27. Not
only do these lines rhyme, but they use the same words, “three,” be,” and “me.” This creates a logical
unity in the poem tying the argument together. Not only is the form consistent with the logic present in
the poem, but images Donne uses anticipates some of the possible arguments his mate may raise.
From the poem, it does not appear that a lack of love for each other keeps these two apart.
There is the issue of their parents not consenting to the match as evidenced in line 14, but what is really
preventing this woman from consenting are the religious based values of the time. There is evidence for
this in the first stanza, where the speaker mentions “A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead” (ln 6).
This is at the heart of her resistance. Donne counters these concerns by including religious language in
his argument. He refers to the potential killing of the flea as a “sacrilege” (ln 18), and in the same line he
states “three sins in killing three,” which is a common reference to the Holy Trinity in Christianity.
Another obvious allusion to Christianity is used when the woman kills the flea in the third stanza and the
speaker refers to the flea’s blood as the “blood of innocence” (ln 20). The speaker uses these religious
ideas in defense of his argument, which makes them appear to have more weight in the eyes of
someone that is clearly concerned with religion. Of course, there is further evidence of this when the
speaker refers to the flea as a “marriage bed, and marriage temple is” (ln 13). What is especially
interesting about this argument, though, is the use of the conceit, where sex is compared with a flea.
As mentioned above, a conceit comparing two unalike things is one of things metaphysical poets
like Donne do well. In this poem Donne compares sex to a flea ingesting the blood of two people. By
making his argument through this conceit he is able to distance the conversation from what is actually
being discussed. The conclusion the speaker reaches at the end is a proxy for the conclusion that the
two should consummate their relationship. Not only does this work for the argument, but it also
captivates the reader’s attention. The way in which Donne uses a parasite as the subject of a love poem
is jarring, and this juxtaposition of love, religion, and ugly violence (the killing of the flea) is what makes
this poem memorable.
In his poem, “The Flea,” Donne achieves several levels of success. He uses form to buttress the
content of his poem, as the form works to represent the logical movements of the speaker’s arguments.
He discredits the religious/moral objections the speaker’s mate or any reader may make by using
religious images to describe the two’s union through the flea. He also picks a repulsive subject like a flea
to discuss some of the most beautiful ideas poets tend to write about—love and faith. For these
reasons it is easy to understand why we are still reading him almost 400 years after his death.