the flea - john donne

what is some context behind the poem and its author? (3 points)

• oppressed as a roman catholic

• became protestant in the 1590s

• in the poem, the speaker envies the flea’s access to his lover’s body

which themes in the flea link to gatsby?

desire and manipulating views on religion (regarding daisy supposedly being catholic)

throughout the poem, donne uses a metaphysical conceit. what is this?

an extended metaphor that compares unrelated things

what is the meaning behind the lines ‘mark but this flea, and mark in this,/ how little that which thou denies me is’?

compares the small size of the flea to the significance of sex

‘it sucked me first, and now sucks thee/ and in this flea our two bloods mingled be’ (2 points)

• metaphor - the flea has already bitten them so they should mingle blood

• context - in 17th century printing, ‘suck’ looked like ‘fuck’ - adds to humor of the poem

‘…this cannot be said/ a sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead’ technique and significance? (2 points)

• persuasion - religious references prove they’ve already mixed blood due to the flea and there’s no issue

• sibilance, tricolon and listing for emphasis

‘yet this enjoys before it woo’ expresses what from the speaker?

jealousy - the flea has gotten her blood without even trying

‘and pamper’d swells with one blood made of two’

the flea is filled with blood, alludes to erections and pregnancy

what is the significance of blood in the poem and the technique used to present it?

metonymic symbol for life - back then people believed blood contained the soul

‘three lives in one flea spare’ (2 points)

• reference to the holy trinity - using religion to justify himself

• structure - the poem has three stanzas with 9 lines (3×3)

‘more than married are’ and ‘…this / our marriage bed, and marriage temple is’

metaphor - marriage is the joining of flesh - sex is the joining of blood/souls

what is the meaning of ‘cloister’d’?

kept away - like nuns or monks

‘ though use make you apt to kill me, / let not to that self-murder added be, / and sacrilege, three sins in killing three’ (2 points)

• trying to persuade the uninterested lover by telling her killing the flea is murder, suicide and sacrilege

• references little-death (orgasms)

‘cruel and sudden, hast thou since / purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?’ (2 points)

• the lover has killed the flea

• religious imagery - ‘nail’ (like jesus nailed on the cross)

‘tis true, then lean 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’

manipulation - that killing the flea doesn’t matter so long as she has sex with him