The Flea
John Donne
Very much a tongue-in-cheek seduction poem, in the rhetorical and argumentative style shared by the English metaphysical poets. I generally prefer the Chinese and Japanese poetic styles, which work with imagery rather than rhetoric, but in John Donne's "Flea" the rhetoric is tempered by humor.
Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is;
It suck'd 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 pamper'd swells with one blood made of two;
And this, alas! is more than we would do.
O stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, yea, more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.
Though parents grudge, and you, we're met,
And cloister'd 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 suck'd from thee?
Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou
Find'st not thyself nor me the weaker now.
'Tis true; then learn how false fears be;
Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me,
Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.
[John Donne Memorial by Nigel Boonham, 2012,
St Paul's Cathedral Churchyard]
John Donne (1572-1631) was an English metaphysical poet, satirist, lawyer, and Anglican priest. His work includes sonnets, love poems, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satirical verse, and sermons. Donne's style is marked by dramatic realism and sensuality. His poetry is vivid, using everyday words as well as striking metaphors. John Donne is considered one of the "metaphysical poets.
"The Flea" is an erotic metaphysical poem first published posthumously in 1633. The exact date of its composition is unknown, but it is likely that Donne wrote this poem in the 1590s, when he was a young law student at Lincoln's Inn, before he became a respected religious figure as Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral. The poem uses the conceit of a flea that has sucked blood from the male speaker and his female lover as an extended metaphor for their relationship. The speaker tries to persuade her to sleep with him, arguing that if their blood mingling in the flea is innocent, then sexual mingling would also be innocent.
Fleas were ubiquitous throughout the Renaissance, both in real life and in poetry. Donne's speaker enviously describes the flea's ability to suck its mistress's skin and meld its fluids with hers, which is how 17th-century society viewed lovemaking. Many lines have sexual overtones, such as the way the insect "swells" with blood in line eight.
Despite its lewdness, the speaker attempts to make his argument respectable when he suggests that the flea's action makes the couple married. The conclusion is filled with images of death, as the woman turns her finger purple as she crushes the flea. In Donne's time, phrases about death were euphemisms for orgasm, the "little death. Her act of killing the flea changes the speaker's tone slightly, as it provides a new rationale for his seduction: since you didn't lose your life with the flea, you won't lose much by giving yourself to me.
However, the tone of the poem is comical and the use of absurdity changes the meaning of the poem. The speaker's exaggerated way of expressing his request is influenced by John Donne's career as a lawyer. Donne uses satire to ridicule the way lawyers argue. In the end, it is clear that the speaker's conquest is not successful because of the deliberate flaws Donne uses in the speaker's argument.
Metaphysical poetry is rarely direct and easy to decipher, which makes it intellectually stimulating to read. Donne's themes are explained through unusual metaphors that turn the strangest idea into a depiction of human experience.
Poem cited from Wikisource.
Photos: via Wikimedia Commons