Through analysis, this poem is an early reference to vampire literature and using blood mingling as a sexual metaphor to join two people. A metaphor for sex, the flea has bitten both the speaker and the woman and their blood is mixed together.
The poem uses the conceit of a flea, which has sucked blood from the male speaker and his female lover, to serve as an extended metaphor for the relationship between them.
“The Flea” is a poem of seduction, but the speaker takes an unusual approach to getting his lady into bed. Instead of praising her beauty or promising her happiness, he instead insists that virginity is unimportant and that its loss will not be a significant source of shame or dishonor.
But, he says, if she kills the flea she will be committing no fewer than three separate sins: murder, suicide ("self murder"), and sacrilege (or disrespecting the faith).
It happens between the end of stanza two and the beginning of three. The woman has crushed the flea, even in death a noble martyr: “Cruel and sudden, hast thou since / Purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence?” By turning this accusation into a question, Donne nicely maintains the comic pitch.
How is “The Flea” an example of verbal irony? Answer: Speaker expresses that sexual intercourse is inconsequential, but implies that it is monumental to him. Therefore, the second and third stanzas are examples of verbal irony for they state the opposite of what is implied.
The biting of the flea is compared to having sexual relations with the women. The speaker claims that the flea bite joins them together like sex. Thus, her preserved purity no longer exists because they now have shared the same fluids (blood) inside the flea.
But when the beloved kills the flea despite the speaker's protestations (and probably as a deliberate move to squash his argument, as well), he turns his argument on its head and claims that despite the high-minded and sacred ideals he has just been invoking, killing the flea did not really impugn his beloved's honor— ...
Flea turned to God in the early '90s after becoming sick with chronic fatigue. His life of partying and drugs had left him empty and craving something new. Although he had been staunchly atheist for the first thirty years of his life, he decided to give God a chance.
The Flea was published after Donne's death, in 1633, potentially due to its shocking and unusual content. Within the text, marriage serves as a euphemism for sex. The speaker wants to consecrate a marriage so he can at least pursue his sexual desires through the act of marriage.
3 - Imagery -Religious imagery - God's view versus the Speaker's view on relationships. Virginity is sacred, link to the Virgin Mary as a religious symbol. 'Loss of maidenhead', 'marriage bed' and 'marriage temple' all relate to religion.
The tone of the poem is highly ironic, dramatic and absurdly amusing. Extravagant declarations of devotion and eternal fidelity which are typical found in love poetry are absent.
In 'The Flea', the flea becomes the representation of the sacred and holy religious ritual of marriage between the speaker and the woman as he claims to her that “This flea is you and I, and this Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is'.
The poem is a satire on platonic love. He says to her that by killing the flea she has lost all the honor now there was no point for her to feel shy or feel honorable.
Answer and Explanation: Metaphysical poetry is characterized by clever conceits, philosophical speculation, and ironic twists of logic. ''The Flea'' features these three characteristics.
After Kiedis introduced him to punk and rock, Flea became infatuated with artists such as The Germs, Styx, David Bowie and Defunkt. Flea's early influences before Blood Sugar Sex Magik were mainly funk artists like Bootsy Collins, Parliament Funkadelic, Sly & the Family Stone, and The Meters.
On his left arm he bears a striking picture of Jimi Hendrix and the name of his daughter, next to a string of coloured elephants that encircle his bicep. Inside his left arm is an abstract design, while on each of his knuckles he has the word 'love'.
The poem has religious overtones all over the place. Though we have the sneaking suspicion that the speaker just wants to have sex with the woman, he tries to argue that he wants to consecrate a holy and sacred religious ritual: marriage, the union of two lives.
The killing of the flea would be sin and sacrilege; it would be three murders in one. In the second stanza, when the poet says, “Oh stay”, he means to say as the beloved gets ready to kill the flea, while the meaning of the word three lives is the life of the flea, of the lover and the beloved herself.
In “The Flea” The lover is persuading his beloved to yield to his advances, but she is concerned about her honor. Yet, just like killing the flea (which contained her blood) did not actually make her feel weaker, giving in to the beloved will not diminish her honor, according to him.
As a core theme in Donne's The Flea, the subject of love and seduction is presented in such a way that the mistress continually rejects his advances. However, Donne is keen to ensure that they copulate. The author says, "It sucked me first, and now sucks thee... And in this flea our two bloods mingled be...
Let's start with the rhyme scheme: AABBCCDDD. These couplets (and one triplet at the end of the stanza) help you keep track of the speaker's argument, which generally proceeds in two-line units.
'The Flea' is a 17th-century English poem by John Donne and uses a flea as a metaphor to explore the sexual union between a man and a woman. The speaker in the poem shows a flea to a young lady that has apparently bitten both of them.
Donne is often considered the greatest love poet in the English language. He is also noted for his religious verse and treatises and for his sermons, which rank among the best of the 17th century.
