The Flea John Donne Analysis

The flea by John Donne is a persuasive poem, in which the speaker is trying to convince his love interest to have a sexual relationship with him. The speaker’s, love interest rejects his request of intimacy because it is hinted that the female lover is a proper lady, and does not believe in premarital sex. John Donne represents the sexual union of the speaker and lover, with the use of imagery, rhythm, and the conceit of a flea. The flea is utilized as a metaphor to represent the relationship between them, and to further persuade his love interest into sleeping with him. The speaker claims that if his love interest are united in the flea, then they would also be united in lovemaking.
The speaker’s main objective is to have a sexual relationship
Later as his lover apts in killing the flea he says that she should not, because she would be guilty of killing three lives because there are three lives within the flea. Although he tries to persuade her not to, she ends up killing the flea when she “Purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence? “(20). After this act she rebuttals, his entire argument by stating that even though the flea holds a special bond between the two of them, when the flea is gone nothing is ever lost or changed. She says this to prove that there is no reason to give in to his sexual desires because killing the flea didn’t make her weaker or stronger. Although she makes a good point describing that nothing changes when the flea is gone, the speaker does not give up but further establishes his point of having intimacy with her by saying “’Tis true; then learn how false, fears be:/Just so much honor, when thou yield’st to me, /Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee.”(26-28).Here he says that the fears his lover has of having intimacy are just as small as the flea she killed, and with this he also reinstates his main point that just like the flea bite caused no harm, having intimacy with him will be harmless as