The Flea
                   by John Donne (1572-1631)

Mark but this flea, and mark in this,                                                The speaker is telling his/her love (from here on I will refer 
How little that which thou deny'st me is.                                          to the speaker as masculine to avoid confusion) to look at
Me it sucked first, and now sucks thee,                                            the flea and see "how little" a thing that she denies him is.
And in this flea, our two bloods mingled be.                                     Basically the flea has sucked his and her blood and this
Confess it, this cannot be said                                                         blood is mixed within the flea (in Medieval times the
A sin, or shame, or loss of maidenhead,                                           mixing of blood was what they thought happened during
   Yet this enjoys before it woo,                                                      intercourse). The speaker then says you wouldn't consider
   And pampered swells with one blood made of two,                        this act a sin, or shame, or loss of virginity.  The flea has
   And this, alas, is more than we would do.                                     enjoyed its fill and has already mixed our bloods, so why 
                                                                                                    don't we just do the same. 
Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, nay more than married are.                                  His love is moving towards killing the flea, the speaker asks
This flea is you and I, and this                                                         that she spare the flea's life as while as his and hers.  He
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is;                                        begins to argue that they are more than married. He says it
Though parents grudge, and you, we'are met,                                   is the flea who has joined them in marriage and has made
And cloistered in these living walls of jet.                                         the marriage official.  Even though parents don't approve
   Though use make you apt to kill me,                                            and though she will not make love to him, they are never-
   Let not to this, self-murder added be,                                           theless joined inside the flea.  Though habit of killing fleas
   And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.                                        she may kill him, but he ask her not to kill herself and that
                                                                                                    it would against God's will and a sin to kill three lives.
Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence?                                          He then sees and asks his love if she has been cruel and
In what could this flea guilty be,                                                     quick to kill the flea, who was innocence.  Then he says
Except in that drop which it sucked from thee?                                what could the flea be guilty of except the drop of blood it
Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou                                          took from the both of us.  He then says that his love replies 
Find'st not thyself nor me the weaker now                                       that neither of them are any less noble for her killing the
   Tis true, then learn how false, fears be:                                        flea.  It is true, he says, and that this proves that her fears
   Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me,                            are false.  That if she sleeps with him she will lose no more
   Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.                         honor than she lost when she killed the flea. 
                                                                                                              (Pub. 1633)