I thought “The Flea” by John Donne was a very interesting poem. Donne uses the symbol of the flea to represent sex and the speaker uses this symbol to persuade his love, this woman, to have sex with him. Because the flea first sucked the speaker’s blood and now the woman’s, he believes they are more connected “than [they] would do.” The speaker is also envious of the flea because the flea can enjoy his lover without even wooing her first. But because he can’t have her, he is also happy that the flea connects them in this way. In the last stanza of the poem, there is a shift—the speaker is angry at his love because she killed the flea. He asks what the fleas sin was, and says she lost no more honor than she would if she slept with him.
I think the killing of the flea is a metaphor sex. He compares them as two important acts; and since the woman thought the act of killing the flea was trivial, then he believes sex should be trivialized as well. Mixing of the blood could also be another metaphor. The speaker explains how since the flea mixed their blood, they were connected, like in marriage. The blood could also be related to the act of sex between the two as well.
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I enjoyed this poem also. The metaphor for sex was spot on, at least from the womans standpoint. I don't think he believes the sex is trivial, because that is all that they can create(unless its a child). The question is, do you kill a flea when you see it?
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ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this poem as well. As you and jdadkins stated, the flea is a great symbol of the notion of sex. I especially enjoyed how the fly sucks both the man and the woman's blood, which results in the man employing the idea that this is a combination of their being. This further increases the man's sexual hard drive, but as we saw, the woman ended up killing the fly, which represents the possibility of them having premarital sex. Good analysis though.
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