The Flea

STRUCTURE

• Three 9 - line stanzas

RHYMING SCHEME

• AABBCCDDD

THEMES

• Sex & Seduction

• Honour

QUOTES

• “Mark but this flea, and mark in this/How little that which thou deny’st 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”

• “And this, alas, is more than we would do”

• “Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare”

• “This flea is you and I, and this/Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is”

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

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

• “Just so much honour, when thou yield’se to me,/Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee”