The Flea

The flea symbolizes sexual and spiritual union. The speaker argues that, by biting both himself and the beloved, the flea has "married" them already as it holds both their blood inside its body. At the same time the flea is an insignificant and innocent creature, the speaker argues that it is also a sacred object that has brought them together. The flea becomes an example of Donne's reliance on paradox as he straddles the line between portraying the flea as small and negligible as well as sacred and momentous.

The Poem

The poem symbolizes the space where the beloved and the speaker are wed. Donne subtly refers to the very poem he is writing by using deictic language, or words whose meaning depends on the particular context in which they are being used. In the second stanza, for example, the speaker says, "This flea is...