VCCS
Litonline Introduction to Literature
Page 5 of 15 English 112 (English Composition II)
VCCS
Litonline Introduction to Literature
Page 5 of 15
English 112 (English Composition II)
|
"The Flea" by John Donne |
The title ("The Flea") (mis)leads us to believe that the poem will be about a flea. It is, but it's also about so much more.
|
| 1
Mark but this flea, and mark in this, 2 How little that which thou deny'st me is; |
While we do not know
as yet whom the speaker is addressing, it does begin with a direct address
(to "thou").
|
| 3
It sucked me first, and now sucks thee, 4 And in this flea, our two bloods mingled be; |
Here we have
exposition in which the speaker fills us
in on what's come before. In line 4, the speaker begins his
argument/attempt at seduction.
|
| 5
Thou knowest that this cannot be said 6 A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead. |
These lines refer
back to line 4. From the 17th century speakers' perspective, in the sexual
act, there is no mingling of blood, and he uses this assumption to point
out that while this mingling is even more intimate than sex, it cannot be
seen as a sinful or shameful act, or a loss of the addressee's virginity,
which reveals that the addressee is not only female, but a virgin.
|
| 7
Yet this enjoys before it woo, 8 And pampered, swells with one blood made of two, 9 And this, alas, is more than we would do. |
The speaker points
out in line 7 that the flea takes its pleasure ("enjoys"--sucks
blood) without any preliminaries ("before it woo" relates it to
a lover). In line 8, the speaker seems to be referring to the flea as
flea , swelling by having drawn the
blood of both, but "one blood made of two" reverberates later
on. In line 9, he refers back to lines 4 and 8, with their assumption that
the sexual act is less intimate a joining than the mingling of their blood
within this flea.
|
|
|
|
