MARK but this flea, and mark in this,

How little that which thou deniest me is ;

It suck'd 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 pamper'd swells with one blood made of two ;

    And this, alas ! is more than we would do.

O stay, three lives in one flea spare,

Where we almost, yea, more than married are.

This flea is you and I, and this

Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.

Though parents grudge, and you, we're met,

And cloister'd 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 suck'd from thee?

Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou

Find'st not thyself nor me the weaker now.

'Tis true ; then learn how false fears be ;

Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me,

Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

His first crazy argument is that she’s lost her virginity to a flea, ( It drew a little blood from her.) and that since the flea already had his blood in it, she and he are already intimate.  He says, “See! Just being a little violated and losing a little blood is no big deal!”

    Now girls, before you kick the computer screen, consider the situation.  They’re probably kissing.  He is saying “Now is the time,”  and she is telling him all the stock defenses... It’s a sin.  It will ruin my reputation.  I’m saving myself for marriage....  He rejoins, “Look! We’re already pregnant inside this flea!”  She laughs and says, ....

“Well, I’ll just kill the flea.  Then you’ll have no reason to vent your lust upon me.”  She’s as goofy as he is!

       “Stay,” in this case, means “Don’t do it!’ as in “Stay your hand!”  He has to think fast now.  This flea was his ticket to paradise and she’s about to render it void.  He goes back to the fact that their blood is commingled in the flea.  It’s just like being married! Two have become one, despite the fact that her parents don’t like him and she’s a little frigid. The flea is both the church they were married in and the bed they consummated the marriage in.  Killing the flea would be murder, desecration of a church, and breaking up a marriage!

    I love the little snide “Though use make you apt to kill me,” comment.  She kills him every day with her coyness.

         She is like, “Whatever!  I’ll just squash this bug.  See, it’s not like lightning is striking me for committing sacrilege.”  Imagine girls, if you squashed a bug and your boyfriend said, “Thou hast purpled thy nail with the blood of innocence.”  Wouldn’t you call him a dork and giggle?

His last argument is that she has found out that a little sinning is no big deal...in fact it’s kind of fun.  So giving up her virginity to him would be just as recreational.

         Did she sleep with him? If she did, it wasn’t because a flea bit her.  It was because her boyfriend  was clever and funny.  Whether she did or not, you can bet she went to her girlfriends and told them of what kind of crazy B.S. he came up with last night.  One of them probably said, “He’s disgusting!” Another probably said, “I think he’s kinda cute.” And they all wished they had crazy stories to tell about their lovers.

          A weird note: We know that the plague was spread by fleas.  17th century people didn’t.  Yet both Donne and Shakespeare called love “The plague” every once in a while.

         THE FLEA                                 by John Donne

This has to be one of the ultimate conceits.  Donne is going to try to convince a woman that she has to make love to him because a flea bit her.  My students used to get so mad.  They thought the women in poems like these must have been idiots if a lame argument like that worked on them  But there’s another way to look at it...


    She’s laughing!  The guy is teasing his girl, and entertaining her.  Back when there were no media, no TV no internet, no movies, no radio,  people had to entertain each other.  If you had a funny but handsome boyfriend, you had  your own syndicated comedy.  If you had a pretty girlfriend who could sing, you had your own Beyonce’.  Sometimes I wonder if the real urgency and yearning I feel in old poetry comes from the realization that to lose someone back in pre-electronica days was to lose your favorite recording artist or actor.  When your girl left you, it was like your xbox got smashed.


    So if this poem seduced the girl, she was giggling all the way.