John Donne’s “The Flea”

John Donne’s “The Flea”

John Donne’s “The Flea” is a seduction poem in which the speaker concocts a clever but outrageous notion to persuade his lady friend to engage with him in coitus.  This poem exemplifies Donne’s earlier work that contrasts with his later spiritual works including the Holy Sonnets.

Introduction with Text of “The Flea”

John Donne’s “The Flea” represents the subject matter that engaged the poet early on in his life.   Donne continues with similar exploits in other seduction poems such as “The Apparition,” “The Indifferent,” and “The Bait,” which is one of many replies to Christopher Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love.”

After Donne decided to forsake the wild side of life and settle into the spiritual life of a preacher, he composed amazing spiritual poetry most notable in the Holy Sonnets. The speaker in John Donne’s “The Flea” uses a twisted kind of reasoning, saying that his blood and that of his lady friend mingling in the flea’s body is not considered “a sin, nor shame” and not loss of virginity. 

This speaker is dramatizing his clever notion that if he and his sweetheart have intercourse, they would also cause bodily fluids to “mingle” which would be less than the mingling of their blood in the flea.  

The speaker wants his girlfriend to accept his logic that they have essentially already engaged in coitus by allowing the flea to conjoin their blood.  This type of extended metaphor is labeled a conceit, and the Metaphysical Poets are most known for employing that literary device.

The Flea

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 mariage 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;v
    ’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.

Commentary on “The Flea”

This seduction poem features the unique employment of the conceit, or extended metaphor, of a flea sucking blood.  The speaker creates an absurd scenario regarding the blood-sucking flea and the blood of the pair of lovers.

First Stanza:  The Prick of a Flea-Bite

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.

In the first stanza of John Donne’s “The Flea,” the speaker asks the woman to think about how little and insignificant would be the loss of her virginity. He compares it to the prick of a fleabite.  He then announces that first the flea bit him and then it bit her, both times sucking out some of their blood, which means that their blood is “mingl[ing]” in the flea’s body.

The speaker then uses a twisted kind of reasoning, saying that their blood mingling in the flea’s body is not considered “a sin, nor shame” and not loss of virginity.  Yet if they had intercourse, they would also cause bodily fluids to “mingle” and that is less than the mingling of blood in the flea.   The speaker wants the girl to accept his reasoning that they have essentially already had sex by allowing the flea to cause their bloods to conjoin.

Second Stanza:  A Venture in Absurdity

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 mariage 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.

The woman starts to whack the flea, but the speaker stops her and then begins another report of absurdity, likening the flea bite to their having engaged in coitus.  He audaciously groans, begging her not to smash the flea, after all because of that insect they are now “more than married.”   He implores her to spare the three lives. The three lives now living in the flea, of course, are the speaker, the woman, and the flea itself.

And since they are, in the speaker’s warped reckoning, having sex in the flea’s body, they are, in fact, more married than ever, although they are obviously not married at all.  The speaker claims metaphorically that the flea has become their “marriage bed, and marriage temple.”

The speaker then dramatizes her attempt to kill the flea by calling her act “self-murder” and “sacrilege” and that she would acquire “three sins in killing three.”  He exaggerates that if she kills the flea, she will be killing not only herself, but also the speaker and the flea.  The lad seems to have become quite desperate.

Third Stanza: Specious Claim

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;v
    ’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 woman does not fall for the specious claims made by her would-be seducer as she suddenly squashes the flea, which squirts the blood on her fingers.  The speaker acts alarmed that she could be so cruel and that she would be so careless as not to follow the logic of surrendering to him sexually.

The woman has thrown his logic back in his face by remarking that they are not dead even though the flea is. And while the speaker has to concede that point, he then moves on to another point by turning the argument on her. 

He says in effect, by killing the flea, she can realize how useless fears are.  She should not fear loss of her honor if she gives in and surrenders her virginity to him.   He argues that the amount of honor she will lose is just the same amount of blood the flea took from her.  He apparently knows the amount of blood a woman’s broken hymen sheds after first experiencing coitus.