The Flea (poem)

The Flea is an erotic metaphysical poem (first published posthumously in 1633) by John Donne (1572–1631). The exact date of its composition is unknown.

The poem uses the conceit of a flea, which has sucked blood from the male speaker and his female lover, to serve as an extended metaphor for the relationship between them. The speaker tries to convince a lady to sleep with him, arguing that if their blood mingling in the flea is innocent, then sexual mingling would also be innocent. His argument hinges on the belief that blood mixes during sexual intercourse.

Commentary

Donne is able to hint at the erotic without explicitly referring to sex, using images such as the flea that "pamper'd swells" with the blood of the lady (line 8). This evokes the idea of an erection. The speaker complains that "This is more than we would do!" (line 9).

The speaker claims it would be "sacrilege" to kill the flea. He holds the flea up in the second stanza as "our marriage bed" and "our marriage temple," begging for the lady to spare its innocent life (line 13). He argues that by killing the flea, she would be killing herself, himself, and the flea itself, "Three crimes in killing three" (line18). The lady, in the third stanza, kills the flea, presumably rejecting the speaker's advances. He then claims she will lose no more honor when she decides to sleep with him than she did when she killed the flea.

Flea

Fleas are insects that form the order Siphonaptera. They are wingless, with mouthparts adapted for piercing skin and sucking blood. Fleas are external parasites, living by hematophagy off the blood of mammals and birds.

Flea species include:

Over 2,000 species have been described worldwide.

Morphology and behavior

Fleas are wingless insects, 1/16 to 1/8-inch (1.5 to 3.3 mm) long, that are agile, usually dark colored (for example, the reddish-brown of the cat flea), with tube-like mouth parts adapted to feeding on the blood of their hosts. Their legs are long, the hind pair well adapted for jumping; a flea can jump vertically up to 7 in (18 cm) and horizontally up to 13 in (33 cm), making the flea one of the best jumpers of all known animals (relative to body size), second only to the froghopper. If humans had the jumping power of a flea, a 1.8-m (6-ft) person could make a jump 90 m (295 ft) long and 49 m (160 ft) high.

Flea (musician)

Michael Peter Balzary (born October 16, 1962), better known by his stage name Flea, is an Australian-born, American musician. He is best known as the bassist, co-founding member, and one of the composers of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers with whom he was inducted in 2012 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Flea briefly appeared as the bassist for such bands as What Is This?, Fear and Jane's Addiction. More recently he has appeared as a member of the rock supergroups Atoms for Peace, Antemasque, Pigface and Rocket Juice & the Moon. Flea has also collaborated with other artists, including The Mars Volta, Johnny Cash, Alanis Morissette and Young MC.

In 2009, Rolling Stone's readers ranked Flea the second-best bassist of all-time, behind only John Entwistle and ahead of Paul McCartney.

Flea has made occasional forays into acting, appearing in films that span many genres, such as Suburbia, Back to the Future Part II and Part III, My Own Private Idaho, The Chase, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Thrashin', and The Big Lebowski, in addition to voicing the character Donnie Thornberry in The Wild Thornberrys animated television series and films. In 2014, Flea made his long awaited return to acting when he appeared in the film, Low Down.

Flea (disambiguation)

A flea is a parasitic insect.

Flea may also refer to:

In literature and fiction: