The Flea Flashcards
(15 cards)
What are the three stanzas called in the flea?
a triptych
what are the main themes of the flea?
sex, marriage and christianity/religion
when was the flea published?
1633 posthumously
what does the poem the flea represent as a whole?
the speakers desire for sex
‘Mark but this flea, and mark in this,’
enjambment - repetition of the word ‘mark’
‘How little that which thou deny’st me is:
‘little that’ signifies making light of the sex before marriage taboo
‘It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,’
Blood is mingled inside the flea, argues this is like sex - also an analogy of lost virginity
‘And in this flea, our two bloods mingled be;’
rhyming couplet
‘A sin, nor shame,’
sibilance
‘swells with one blood made of two,’
sexual theme - lewd
‘O stay, three lives in one flea spare,’
eg to kill the flea would be to kill them all (narrator, narratee and flea)
‘Where we almost, yea more than married are,’
suggests the flea bite means they are practically married already
‘Though use make you apt to kill me,’
slang for sex and orgasm
‘And sacrilege, three sins in killing three,’
the flea is seen as a religious symbol now - three could allude to the holy trinity (father, son and holy spirit) (causes a comedic comparison between heaven and a tiny flea)
‘Will waste,’
describes that nothing has changed
