Form and Meter
This little poem is a marvel of form and rhythm. Donne makes the writing look so easy that you hardly notice everything going on beneath the surface.Let's start with the rhyme scheme: AABBCCDDD. Th...
Speaker
The speaker of "The Flea" is a smart aleck who will never admit to having lost an argument. You could catch him in some ridiculously absurd conclusion, and he would be like, "A-ha! But that just pr...
Setting
Like many works by the Metaphysical Poets, "The Flea" contains wild shifts in the imaginative setting of the poem (the images you think about as a reader), even as the literal setting stays in one...
Sound Check
The speaker in this poem reminds us of one of those little red devils that sits on your shoulder and tries to convince you to do something bad. Maybe you haven't had the little-red-devil experience...
What's Up With the Title?
"The Flea" – kind of sounds like an alternative British rock band, doesn't it? It's a simple title, and just a bit edgy. You certainly don't expect a love poem. Thus, the title plays against...
Calling Card
Donne wasn't afraid to use sexual themes, language, and imagery to make a spiritual point...or vice-versa. He seemed to think that the erotic life had an almost mystical power to unite people, or t...
Tough-O-Meter
The nice thing about John Donne is that he often picks a single idea and just runs with it. He beats it to death and then beats it some more. In this case, that single idea (or "metaphysical concei...
Brain Snacks
Sex Rating
Donne beats around the proverbial bush quite a lot in "The Flea," but we know what he means with all this talk about the marriage bed and the mixing of "blood" (as in, bloodlines and bodily fluids)...