The Flea By John Doone: Poem Analysis

Intimacy has always been known as an important part in a relationship. Yet, it is common for people to have different beliefs on sex before marriage. John Doone described this dilemma in his poem called “The Flea”. Doone uses many literary devices to support the reader’s understanding of how a tiny insect such as a flea can be compared to someone’s relationship. Doone illustrates imagery, metaphor, and symbolism to emphasize the speaker’s sexual desires toward a woman. At the beginning of the poem, the speaker is denied sexual pleasures by a woman who he was interested in. Yet, the couple was both been bitten by a flea. The speaker, and his love’s blood were together inside the flea. According to the speaker, this action joined them together

Imagery in a poem can be significant to what a reader takes away from a poem. Doone uses moral views to present religious imagery in the poem. By conveying this religious imagery, the speaker uses his love’s religious views to try to convince her to have sex with him before marriage, which is usually viewed as a sin. At the beginning of the poem, starting in line three, the speaker states that the flea has taken blood from him first, and then from only his love. (3-4) The speaker states that “Thou know’st that this cannot be said a sin, nor a shame” (5). Doone is displaying a sense of religious imagery by the speaker stating that even though it may be known as immoral, the woman should know that it is not a shame to have sex with him because their bloods already mingled together inside the flea (4). The speaker says that “And in this flea our two bloods mingled be” (4). By using this religious imagery, the speaker is stating their bloods being together inside the flea is already equivalent to sex, so it would not be an immoral gesture. Doone also presents religious imagery in lines thirteen and fourteen. The speaker states that the flea represents marriage, and “marriage is a temple” (13). Religious beliefs may state that a couple should be married before having sex. The speaker is attempting to convince his love that it would not be a sin to sleep with him because the flea already portrays a marriage. By using this

Symbolism is a literary device that gives symbolic meaning to objects, giving the reader a better understanding of the idea of a literary work. Doone uses the flea to symbolize the relationship between the speaker and his lover. The flea is later described as their “marriage bed” (13). In line twelve, Doone writes “This flea is you and I”. He is stating that since the flea bit them both, the flea can represent their relationship. By giving this symbolic meaning to the flea, it allows the speaker to describe how badly he wants sexual relations with his lover. This symbolism also supports the idea of the speaker trying to convince his love that sex is shameless act. In lines sixteen through eighteen, the speaker explains to the woman the importance of not killing the flea. He explains that it would be awful to kill the flea because it would be equivalent to killing him, and killing herself (16-18). Another example of symbolism is the blood inside the flea. Doone uses the blood to symbolize togetherness between the speaker and his lover. Since both the speaker, and the woman’s blood were mixed together inside the flea, it is described as if they are one. Using the blood to symbolize togetherness sets a dramatic tone to the poem. In lines eight Doone states that the flea “swells with one blood made of two, and this alas, is more than we would do” (8-9). The speaker begins to try to convince his love that since