The Flea Essay

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An analysis of The Flea written by John Donne

The flea, written by John Donne is another poem containing love, sex and religion. One of John Donne's characteristics is to always include these three main subjects in his poems. The Flea represents lust, but a lust with respect for women. The subject of this poem is about a couple of lovers lying in bed. He wants to take her virginity away from her. In essence, the meaning of this quote: "And in this flea our two bloods mingled be" means that the flea has bitten both lovers and that their blood is mingled in the flea. The act of having sexual intercourse is considered to be an exchange of bodily fluids, not necessarily being all about love and lust. The lover also feels some kind of jealousy because the flea has already mingled with her before their marriage, and he has not, or in the poem referred to as to befroe "woo".

The vocabulary used in this poem is quite old, I would say it dates back to the 17th century, it does not contain a lot of complicated words, but the old English used made it necessary