Essay Database

"The Flea" a poem by John Donne, is one young man's struggle to get a girl into bed. He uses a simple flea to sell his argument. The speaker, stanza by stanza, goes from rationalizing, to desperately grasping for a hold to his argument, and then trying to salvage what's left of his argument to get his female companion into bed. He tries every step of the way. As the first stanza of "The Flea" …

…marital union within it. Slaying the unfortunate flea will therefore make his companion guilty of "three sins in killing three," (18) argues the speaker as the stanza ends. His inspired rhetoric notwithstanding, as the third stanza opens the speaker seems to have failed in his energetic entreaties to save the flea. Having witnessed his companion squashing it, he chastises her for the "cruel and sudden" (19) act by which she's "purpled [her] nail in blood of innocence."