Donne

Donne At first glance, the nature of Donne’s poem "The Flea" appears to be a love poem. It seems as though the male is pursuing the lady and she is resisting his pursuits. If you look deeper, you could even say that the male is trying to convince the woman that the loss of innocence does not mean the loss of honor. Donne begins the poem by illustrating intercourse as a dirty, shameful thing. He even goes so far to say if a tiny flea can recognize this then a human being sure should be able to see it. The flea bites both the poet and his lover. The poet asks his love to pay attention to the flea and the mixing of their blood in the flea’s body. Donne describes the swelling of the flea’s stomach in terms that it makes it seem as though it’s a pregnancy. (Although not a natural pregnancy….the flea is swollen with their blood…and it seems Donne is alluding to a surrogate pregnancy and some imaginary marriage) Oddly enough it seems as though Donne is referring to the lady as a black widow spider saying that the woman is apt to kill him after they celebrate this flea, woman, poem, seems, male, donne, though, poet, man, lover, loss, even, yet, world, trying, through, tells, sexual, say, pregnancy, position, now, nothing, marriage, love, lady, kills, kill, intercourse, innocence, imaginary, honor, flea’s, fantasy, dead, body