The Flea By John Donne

Introduction 

John Donne (/dʌn/ DUN; 1571 or 1572– 31 March 1631) was an English poet, scholar,  soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, (A recusant was someone who (from about 1570-1791) refused to attend services of the Church of England) who later became a cleric (A cleric is a religious leader or member of the clergy. 

The term comes from the Latin word clericus, which means priest" or "clerk) in the Church of England. Under Royal Patronage, (financial support) he was made Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London (1621–1631). He is considered the preeminent (having supreme rank, dignity) representative of the metaphysical poets. (a group of English poets) 

His poetical works are noted for their metaphorical and sensual style (love) and include sonnets, love poems, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, (a short poem) elegies, (a poem or song that expresses sadness) songs and satires. (the use of humour) He is also known for his sermons. (speech)

Poem

Flea (a very small jumping insect without wings that lives on animals)

Mark but this flea, and mark in this,

How little that which thou (you) deniest me is;(refuse to admit)

It sucked me first, and now sucks thee, (to pull a liquid into your mouth)

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,

(evil things, maidenhead - Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse)

Yet this enjoys before it woo,

(he gives her a lot of attention in an attempt to persuade her to marry him:)

And pampered swells with one blood made of two,

And this, alas, is more than we would do. (pity)

Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,

Where we almost, nay more than married are. (no)

This flea is you and I, and this

Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is;

Though parents grudge, and you, w'are met, (a strong feeling of anger and dislike for a person who treated you badly)

And cloistered in these living walls of jet. (be resentfully unwilling to give or allow)

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.

Theme

Donne’s poem “The Flea” is a seductive one where the speaker insists his beloved to lose her virginity to him before marriage. In the Elizabethan society women were pressurized to preserve virginity until marriage. But the speaker here argues that it is less significant and losing one’s virginity before marriage is no shame.

The speaker here notes that their blood mixes in the flea’s body too, and it is not seen as a sin or shameful thing. Thus, he argues that premarital sex should not be an issue at all. Actually, the poet here challenges and wants to remake the social norms around sexuality and marriage.

 In Short

• In the poem “The Flea” the speaker insists his ladylove to sleep with him before marriage, but she denies.
• The speaker now asks her to look at a flea which has sucked blood from both.
• Their blood has mingled in the flea’s body. According to him, it is almost a sexual union and more than marriage. But there is no shame or sin in this.
• So, the speaker opines, the lady should not be worried about losing virginity. It is of less significance than she thinks.

The Flea – Explanation

Stanza – 1

Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is;

It looks like the poem begins in the middle of a conversation. The speaker’s ladylove has denied him something. The speaker asks her to look at the little insect, the flea and to realize that what she denies him is less significant than she thinks.

The word ‘mark’ indicates it’s important. Anyway, we still don’t know what actually the beloved has denied him. Let’s keep reading.

It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;

The flea at first sucked the blood of the speaker by biting him and now it sucks the beloved’s blood. Thus, their blood has mingled in the flea’s body. It is like being united sexually. Actually, the society in Donne’s time literally viewed sex as the mingling of blood and bodily fluids.

So, now we know what the fuss is all about. Now we get the speaker’s context. Understandably, he wanted to have a sexual intercourse with his ladylove but she denied to get physical before marriage. That is why our speaker is now trying to convince her on how trifle the matter actually is. Here repeated use of the word ‘suck’ heightens the sexual touch which is the hallmark of Donne’s love poems.

Thou know’st that this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead,

The speaker now refers to the flea and means that it is an innocent creature moving from host to host and sucking their blood. So, she must acknowledge that this mingling of blood is neither a sin nor a shame. In fact, it is not loss of ‘maidenhead’, i.e., virginity.

The speaker’s point here is that if mingling of their blood in the flea is not a sin, why should their love-making then be a sin either?

Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pampered swells with one blood made of two,
And this, alas, is more than we would do.

The flea has enjoyed having feasted on the beloved’s blood ‘before it woo’, i.e., before courtship and marriage. So, why is he denied the same?

The flea’s body is now swelled up with their respective blood and the two blood has now become one in its body. The lover regrets that the flea’s action is ‘more’ than what the speaker and his beloved would do. He just wanted to have sex with her but this flea has gone too far as it mingles their blood directly in its body. The speaker here feels jealous and sees the flea as his rival.

Stanza – 2

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;

The ladylove almost goes to kill the flea when the speaker resists her. By the words ‘Oh stay’ we realize that the beloved gets ready to kill the flea. He stops her by telling that the flea contains three lives inside it.

Here, the speaker brings the Christian concept of Holy Trinity, three persons in one god. He manages to turn the flea into a religious symbol which also contains three spirits – his, her and the flea’s. In its body, they are almost married – no, more than married.

In the flea’s body, his and her blood is mingled. In its body they’ve joined in one like the joining of their bodies in sexual love after marriage. So, the flea’s body is both their marriage bed and marriage temple. The speaker argues that he and the lady have already bypassed the usual vows of fidelity and ceremony of marriage through this flea. So, the lady now must not kill it.

Though parents grudge, and you, w’are met,
And cloistered in these living walls of jet.

Despite her parents’ and her own objections (grudge), their blood mingles (w’are met) in the body of the flea, as it does in the sex-act. Both the lady and her parents think that physical union should take place only after marriage. But they are now safely together inside the little flea – within the dark (like jet) living walls of its body.

Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that, self-murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.

It seems like the lady is not at all pleased with the speaker. He thinks that her natural inclination and habits (use) would lead her to want to kill him. But he warns her against killing the flea because by killing it she would not only murder him, but also add self-murder and sacrilege to the list of her sins.

If she kills the flea, it will be self-murder or suicide as the flea has sucked her blood too. Self-murder is prohibited by religion. Again, killing an innocent creature would be a sin and sacrilege. Thus, by killing the flea, she would kill three and would be judged for three sins – murder, suicide and sacrilege.

Stanza – 3

Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence?

Despite all the pleading not to kill the flea, the lady now suddenly kills it. The speaker calls her action cruel and sudden. She has purpled her nails with the blood of the innocent flea.

Wherein could this flea guilty be,
Except in that drop which it sucked from thee?

The speaker asks his lady – “What is the fault of this flea?” He thinks it has not done anything wrong except sucking that one drop of blood from each of their body. The flea is an innocent creature and its action is just a rule of nature.

Yet thou triumph’st, and say’st that thou
Find’st not thy self, nor me the weaker now;

The beloved is triumphant after killing the flea. She proudly claims that neither she nor he is in any way weaker now than they were before for having killed the flea.

The speaker argued earlier that killing the flea will be killing both of them. So, now she goes against his argument and proves him wrong, as she doesn’t lose any of her strength after killing the insect. The lady thus triumphs not only over the flea but also over the speaker.

’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 speaker is clever enough here to turn the words of his beloved against her. She just said that the death of the flea hasn’t weaken them and showed it as a small incident. Similarly, he opines, in giving her virginity to him (thou yield’st to me) she will lose as much honour as she lost life or strength in killing the flea.

Thus, the speaker attempts to convince her that losing virginity and enjoying sexual love before marriage is not as important an issue as she thinks. It does not have greater consequence on their life and is as insignificant as killing the flea is.

Title

The title of the poem “The Flea” at the first glance suggests that the poem has something to say about the insect. No one expects a love poem inside.

Donne, however, has cleverly used an insect as a metaphor for a sexual union between a man and a woman. The flea is here rather an excuse for the speaker to woo his ladylove. And being a distant comparison, it serves well the metaphysical conceit of the poem.