The Flea By John Donne Summary

“The Flea” by John Donne is about the speaker and the woman the speaker is communicating with throughout the poem. The speaker uses the flea as a mean to persuade the woman to have sex with him. The flea expresses their connection once it has bitten the both of them. The speaker uses the flea to manipulate the woman to his advantage. Donne uses iambic tetrameter (four iambic feet per line) in lines 1, 3, 5, 7 and iambic pentameter (five iambic feet per line) in lines in lines 2, 4, 6, 8, 9 with a rhyme scheme of aabbccddd. The couplets of aabbccddd helps the reader keep track of the speaker’s argument throughout the poem. It also helps introduce a new idea with each new rhyme introduced in the poem. “Thee” and “be” are used quite often in the poem. Donne also uses repetition such as “sucked and marked” in …show more content…
“Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?”(20). He accuses her of killing the innocent flea. He goes to say that she must now “yield’s to me” (26). The woman killing the flea was a betrayal of sorts for she ended their connection that was held within the flea. The speaker uses the flea’s death to his advantage by pointing out the fact that he is “weaker now” (24). He argues that she must now give herself up to him for she killed the flea that held their connection within its body. By killing the flea, the speaker is turned down from having any hope of physical interaction with the woman. He lets her know that it would hold “just so much honor” (26), if she were to just let him have his way with her. The speaker ends his argument by saying “Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee” (27). It is understood that the speaker is disappointed that he did not woo the woman at the end of the poem. He further makes her feel guilty by letting her know that she does not only just kill the flea and herself, but she had also killed him in the