John Donne uses a flea, blood, and the murder of the flea as cunning metaphors for the most established ancient ritual, intercourse. Through the use of symbolic images Donne is not only analyzing the power of virginity but also the significance of premarital sex and intercourse as it exists in life. The speaker uses the flea as a cunning tool to explain his point of view about premarital sex. The metaphors used within the poem are generous, using the flea as the most dominant repetitive image throughout the poem. This small bloodsucking organism is used for numerous symbolic meanings. During the Renaissance when this poem was written, the flea was used in many poems about intercourse . Within this poem the flea is illustrated as a marriage temple and a carrier of life; however, at the same time being something so irrelevant and small as well. The speaker uses the flea in relation to intercourse on more than one instance. .
The speaker indicates to his lady to notice "how little" the flea is in size, which is the sex that she refuses him. The flea has sucked the speaker's blood first and than his lady's second, to merge their blood together inside the flea. This merge cannot be an unhealthy union, "A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead." The flea has united them together in a way that they are unable to do without having premarital sex, "And this, alas! is more than we would do.".
The flea that has just bitten the speaker and his lady represents the tension between them about experiencing premarital sex. The speaker wants to have premarital sex; however, his lady does not want too. Inside the flea their blood is mixed together which illustrates how innocent premarital sex can really be. He explains that if their united blood in the flea is so innocent, then sexual intercourse would be just as innocent because in the end they are really the same thing. The speaker contends that the flea has united them together as one he questions why can they not unite themselves together instead? .
The Flea by John Donne The Flea by John Donne is a poem of sadistic seduction. ... This mixing of bloods upsets the lady and she then smashes the flea. ... He says that by killing the flea, she has killed them both since their blood was within the flea. ... Even though the flea sucked him, he still has his honor. ... The flea is even referred to as their world. ...
The Flea by John Donne The Flea by John Donne is a poem of sadistic seduction. ... This mixing of bloods upsets the lady and she then smashes the flea. ... He says that by killing the flea, she has killed them both since their blood was within the flea. ... Even though the flea sucked him, he still has his honor. ... The flea is even referred to as their world. ...
God's Gifts Analysis of the poem The Flea John Donne, a poet of the renaissance has produced many lusty and sexual poems. One of his many poems is called "The Flea" which introduces a character whose main goal is to bed his mistress. ... As the speaker remarks on the flea, he explains that the flea, who has bitten them both "swells with one blood made of two" (7-9). ... The speaker is trying to convince the mistress that if a flea is allowed to enjoy her, then there is no fear in allowing him to enjoy her too, because he wooed her longer than the flea. ... When the mistress kills the...
In the poem, The Flea, John Donne demonstrates grief, shame, anxiety and pain with the touch of his pen. ... The poem begins with: "Mark but this flea, and Mark in this How little that which thou deny'st me is; It sucked me first, and Now sucked 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." ... "Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare, Where we almost, yea more than, married are. ... "Wherein could this flea guilty be," what he is saying is, the by squashing what could be the beginning of a new lif...
Wit and Religious Imagery in "The Flea" In his funny little poem "The Flea," John Donne merges wit with religious imagery in an attempt to convince a woman to sleep with him. In the first stanza Donne cleverly uses the humorous image of an insignificant flea that has just sucked the blood of both Donne and his intended lover as he tries to convince his beloved that the mingling of bodily fluids during intercourse would be just as innocent as their blood mingling inside the body of the flea. ... In the second stanza Donne supports his argument and attempts to stop his beloved from killing t...
The suitor in "The Flea" argues that his girlfriend should stop being a prude. ... He asks his mistress to notice only "this flea." ... He explains that the flea has bitten them both. ... Secondly, since her own blood is mixed with the flea's, shedding the flea's blood would be comparable to suicide. Thirdly, the flea is the institution in which their "wedding" took place. ...
The flea has sucked the blood of both the narrator and his girlfriend and now "in this flea, [their] two bloods mingled be." ... Metaphorically, the flea represents the "marriage bed, and marriage temple;" thus the flea embodies even more religious significance because it is where they were united for the first time into one entity. The girlfriend is still not persuaded and is about to kill the flea when the narrator presents one last argument as to why the flea should be spared. ... Since both his blood and the blood of his girlfriend are in the flea, he compares killing the flea to both h...
Parasites and Pick-Up Lines; Sophistry in John Donnes' "The Flea- Rejoice! ... "The Flea- is more than a run of the mill love poem. ... He points out that their blood is now mingled in the flea, and no sin has occurred, has it? ... The hapless flea becomes a symbol of married union, and their mixed blood a symbol of the child that could result. ... How could the flea have deserved to die, unless its' guilt had come from her blood? ...
Justinian's Flea by William Rosen describes the fall of the Roman Empire from the division of the Empire by Diocletian to the start of the rise of the Islamic powers. ... Pestis delivered by rat fleas, hence the title, would lead to the weakening of the Byzantine Empire and by this the eventual loss of most of the territory in western Europe that would lead to the start of the Medieval period. ...
