The Flea

Written in the late 16th century, the poem features a clever speaker trying to seduce a woman by arguing that since a flea has bitten them both, their blood is already mingled inside the insect. He claims that physical intimacy would be no more sinful or significant than the mixing of their blood in the flea.

Despite the speaker's protests that killing the flea would constitute triple murder, the woman deliberately uses her nail to crush the insect. The speaker then twists her logic, pointing out that neither of them is weaker after the flea's death, implying she would lose no honor by sleeping with him.

It is a classic example of a metaphysical conceit, heavily favored by John Donne, which uses an extended, shocking metaphor to make an intellectual argument. The poem uses the bizarre analogy of a blood-sucking insect to explore the religious and social rules surrounding female chastity.

John Donne wrote 'The Flea' around the 1590s during the Elizabethan era, but it was not published during his lifetime. The poem was printed posthumously in 1633 in a collection of his work, long after he had established his reputation as a master of metaphysical poetry.