The speaker asks his beloved to examine a flea that has bitten them both, implying that through sharing the flea's blood they are now connected. He argues that killing the flea would be akin to suicide or sacrilege. The woman objects that the flea means nothing, but the speaker insists their union in the flea is a type of marriage. He says killing the flea would waste the honor she would gain by yielding to him, twisting her argument to his advantage. The poem uses the flea as a metaphor to persuade the woman to have sex without losing her virginity.

1. THE FLEA
by John Donne
Mark but this flea, and mark in this, Mark = Check out
How little that which thou deniest me is.
When the speaker says, "Mark but this flea," what is he asking his implied audience to do?
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What is Donne’s would-be beloved “den[ying]” him?
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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;
What does “this” mean (line 5)?
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Why does the speaker say the flea's action is not "a sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead"?
Why might the flea's action be considered by some as sinful or shameful?
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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.
Paraphrase the poem so far, including the lines above:
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O stay! Three lives in one flea spare, Stay= Stop!
Where we almost, yea, more than married are.
Why are they “more than married” in the body of this flea?

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This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.
What does the speaker mean when he says, "This flea is you and I”?
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What does “this” mean in the lines above?
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How is the flea theoretically a marriage bed? A marriage temple?
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Though parents grudge, and you, we're met,
And cloister'd in these living walls of jet.
What is the attitude of Donne’s parents (or the girl’s parents) to their possible union?
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What is a “cloister”? What does it mean to be “cloistered”?
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What does Donne imply by using the word “cloistered” in the lines above?
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Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that self-murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.
What potentially religious images/meanings can you find in this stanza?

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Why does the speaker say that killing the flea would be "self-murder" or suicide? Why does he
say that killing the flea would be sacrilege?
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Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?
At the beginning of the third stanza, it seems that the beloved has taken some sort of abrupt
action. What has she done that the speaker calls "cruel and sudden"?
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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.
When the speaker says, "Yet thou triumph'st and say'st that thou / Find not thyself, nor me the weaker now," what
does he mean?
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'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.
What is the woman's counter-argument to the speaker's claim that they have been married in the body of the flea?
How, in the final three lines, does the speaker take her counter-argument and twist it to his own advantage?
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4. Some questions taken or adapted from the following source:
http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/study/201_Donne_01.html