Donne

At first glance, the nature of Donne’s poem "The Flea" appears to be a love poem. It seems as though the male is pursuing the lady and she is resisting his pursuits. If you look deeper, you could even say that the male is trying to convince the woman that the loss of innocence does not mean the loss of honor. Donne begins the poem by illustrating intercourse as a dirty, shameful thing. He …

…to represent a sexual act between the man and his lover. As the man continues to relate his idea to the woman, she kills the flea, thus crushing his ideas and rejecting him. After she has killed the flea, he tells her that she has not committed a big crime. Yet he tells her that in fearing for her honor she has reduced herself to the importance of the dead flea, which now is nothing.