 |
| The Flea By John Donne: Summary and Exercises | Major English Class 11 |
Summary
The Flea is a poem that is all about one man trying to get a woman to have sex with him. The woman is probably a virgin. In his attempt to persuade his would be lover the man focuses on a flea, a parasite that has sucked blood from them both.
He uses a logical argument (a conceit) to try and win her over. With their blood mingled now in the flea, the act being totally innocent, better not to kill it because that would be sacrilege.
When the woman does kill the flea, with her nail, he appears to admit that she's won the game. But, in the last three lines he tries to turn the flea's death to his advantage by claiming it is of no real consequence, just as is losing one's virginity.
Rhyming pattern (Scheme)
The Flea has a rhyme scheme of:
aabbccddd
Each stanza is made up of three couplets of rhyming pairs plus a rhyming triplet, making a total of 9 lines per stanza and 27 in total. Full rhyme bonds together meaning.
Symbols used in the poem:
The Flea contains strong religious imagery in the second stanza. The speaker, having temporarily stopped his would be female lover from killing the flea - Oh stay - says they 'more than married are'.
In addition, the flea is a symbol of the marriage bed and marriage temple (the human body being a temple of the Holy Spirit according to Paul in the bible, Corinthians 1).
Marriage is also one of the seven Catholic sacraments so to kill the flea would be an act of sacrilege, violation. It would be a sin.
Exercises
1. In most of the poems, lovers try to persuade their beloved and their beloved remain shy. How does the narrator try to persuade his beloved in this poem? Describe.
The narrator tries to persuade his beloved by creating various romantic atmosphere. He shows her a flea and says various romantic things like it has sucked both their blood and now that there blood have been mixed up and made up one. He tells her that they have now blood relation. They are married now. The flea's inner
body is their marriage bed and that there is no sin to be together now.
2. The flea in this poem is interpreted as the seducer by some critics. How do you interpret it? What is the meaning of its death? Describe.
I too, believe that the flea in the poem is used as the seducer because through flea he uses various symbols related to flea and creates seductive environment. He says that the flea has made them as one, they are now married with each other and they can now be together in the marriage bed i.e. the flea's body.
Also Read: Letter of Christopher Columbus: On His First Voyage to America, 1492 | Summary and Question Answers
3. How does the flea represent 3 lives in one? Describe.
While the poet and his beloved where sitting somewhere together the flea sucked their blood. The poet then says now that his and his beloved's blood has been mixed up with the flea's blood, the flea's body contains three lives in it. One is of poet, one is of his beloved and one is of the flea itself.
4. What is the rhyming scheme of the poem? Illustrate.
The rhyming scheme of the poem is aabbccddd.
5. What are the images used in the poem?
The images used in the poem are lust, persuasion, denial, anger, love, sex, marriage, relation etc.
6. How is the image of the flea used differently in the present poem? Describe.
Tiny insect is the primary image of the poem, through which all the metaphors and puns that Donne is famous for our woven. He takes advantage of the contrast between the small size and general insignificance of the flea in the monumental importance that the speaker ascribes to it. Of course this is all meant to be very very humorous and witty, from the author's prospective if not the speaker's.
