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From ZuluNotes - Free Leaving Cert Notes

The Poem

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.

Analysis

Summary/Explanation

In essence, this poem is John Donne's attempt at being a 16th century Ross O'Carroll-Kelly. He is trying to convince a would be partner to sleep with him, and uses the flea as a metaphor in an attempt, through several analogies, to convince her how loss of innocence is not synonymous with loss of honour. The refrence to mingling of blood is based on the belief in those days that sexual intercourse involved two drops of blood being joined within the female.

Stages of persuasion

The poet begins with a simple, vivid opening "Mark but this flea", which in itself, is his firts attempt to argure the point to his lady that what she is witholding from him is a small thing "How little that which thoug deny'st me is." He uses this pseudo-protagonist of the flea as a persuasive analogy in this manner throughout the poem.

He then explains to his partner that their two bloods have mingled in the flea, and he forces his parnter to confess that this mixing of blood draws no shame on her: "Confess it, this cannot be said / A sin, or shame, or loss of maidenhead." Once it is agreed that this is fact, he applies the same logic to the consumation of their love, this it would not take from her honour.

Donne then turns to portray the flea as a "marriage temple" and says that killing them would be a kin to killing all three of them. When his lover squishes the flea, he points out that she feels no shame, remorse or regret, and tries to convince her "how false, fears be"; that her fears about loosing her honor with her virginity would too prove not as big a worry as she is making

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