The Flea - John Donne

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 marriage 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;

    ’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.

In the poem poet, with the help of flea tries to convince his beloved for sex, but in the end fails.

The speaker tells his beloved to look at the flea before them. He says that the flea has first suckered his blood and then her blood. So that now they are mingled and this cannot be called sin. As his beloved moves to kill the flea, the speaker stops her, asking her to spare the three lives in the flea.

Poet says that where their blood is mingled, they are almost married and the flea is their marriage bed and marriage temple. Though their parents grudge their romance and though she will not make love to him, they are united in the flea.

Poet's beloved is apt to kill the flea, but he says that to kill the flea would be sacrilege. But his beloved kills the flea. She denies for sex this way and so lover's desire of making love does not fulfill.

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Ajit Kaliya

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