Context. The flea has already “cloister’d” them within its body’s “walls of jet” (line 15, possibly also suggesting that they are alone together in a dark room). The woman’s disdain for him and his suit becomes more apparent as he claims she is “apt” to kill him (line 16), following her habit of … However, John Donne uses his words carefully and never shows any obscenity even when he discusses about private matters such as sex. MARK but this flea, and mark in this, How little that which thou denies me is ; It suck’d me first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled be. John Donne was a cleric in the Church of England, making sense with the rife of Christian/religious imagery within the poem. The narrator changes his metaphor based on what he believes will be most persuasive.Donne’s metaphysical conceit is a clever metaphor that relates a flea’s bite and killing to a young couple in disagreement about the meaning of sex. ‘The Flea’ is a seduction lyric: in summary, the speaker of the poem is trying to convince the woman to go to bed with him. Love is a game/battle to be won. The Flea (Unrequited love, frustration, surprising imagery, humour…) “Mark but this flea, and mark in this” – urgent, imperative nature, dominant and exuberant, heightened by the repetition. Report Card: 1. The flea is the main metaphor/character in the poem, symbolizing the union between the man and the woman, the other two subjects of the poem, who are inferior to the power that the flea holds upon them … As with many poems by John Donne and the Metaphysical Poets, there’s an elaborate conceit (a sort of extended metaphor yoking together deliberately incongruous ideas) used by the poet throughout ‘The Flea’ to help him make his ‘argument’. Thus the metaphysical context comes to play as, with the term 'conceit' being a synonym for 'thought' at the time, the metaphor employed in the conceit was often completely outrageous and ridiculous, such is the comparison between the mingling of blood in a flea to The Flea by John Donne is a revolutionary poem when one compares it to the principals of those living in the 16 th century. 'The Flea' is a 17th-century English poem by John Donne and uses a flea as a metaphor to explore the sexual union between a man and a woman. This poem was published posthumously in 1633. Like Donne’s flea, the rat is a locus for the heretical and ephemeral; addressing the creature, Rosenberg exclaims, ‘they would shoot you if they knew’. The Flea (1633) 2. is more than we would do. Thou know’st that this cannot be said A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ; Yet this enjoys before it woo, And pamper’d swells with one blood made of two ; And this, alas ! “Confess it, this cannot be said”, “Oh, stay” – Imperatives: He is being ignored, controlling with frustrated tone. John Donne (1572-1631) 3. Donne’s flea is external to, and other than, the man and woman it bites; Rosenberg’s rat is a ‘live thing’ running between the … John Donne is a metaphysical conceit poet, replacing an idea with an animal/object. The flea is a metaphysical conceit in which is expressed in whatever way is convenient at the time.