About Poem:
The speaker uses the occasion of a flea hopping from himself to a
young lady as an excuse to argue that the two of them should make love.
Since in the flea their blood is mixed together, he says that they have
already been made as one in the body of the flea. Besides, the flea
pricked her and got what it wanted without having to woo her. The flea’s
bite and mingling of their bloods is not considered a sin, so why
should their love-making?
In the second stanza the speaker
attempts to prevent the woman from killing the flea. He argues that
since the flea contains the “life” of both herself and the speaker, she
would be guilty both of suicide and a triple homicide in killing it.
The
woman in question is obviously not convinced, for in the third stanza
she has killed the flea with a fingernail. The speaker then turns this
around to point out that, although the flea which contained portions of
their lives is dead, neither of them is the weaker for it. If this
commingling of bodily fluids can leave no lasting effect, then why does
she hesitate to join with him in sexual intimacy? After all, her honor
will be equally undiminished.
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