Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
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How little that which thou deniest me is;
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It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,
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And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;
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Thou, know’st that this cannot be said |
5 |
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead,
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Yet this enjoys before it woo,
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And pampered swells with one blood made of two,
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And this, alas, is more than we would do.
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Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare, |
10 |
Where we almost, yea more than married, are.
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This flea is you and I, and this
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Our marriage bed and marriage temple is;
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Though parents grudge, and you, we are met,
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And cloistered in these living walls of jet, |
15 |
Though use make you apt to kill me
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Let not to that, self-murder added be,
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And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.
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Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
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Purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence? |
20 |
Wherein could this flea guilty be,
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Except in that drop which it sucked from thee?
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Yet thou triumph’st, and say’st that thou
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Find’st not thy self nor me the weaker now;
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‘Tis true, then learn how false fears be;
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25 |
Just so much honor, when thou yield’st to me,
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Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee.
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