It
may help you to understand this poem to realize that during the
seventeenth century it was believed that women became pregnant when the
blood of the man (present in his semen) mixed with her blood during
sexual intercourse. With this in mind, what do the first six lines of
the second stanza mean to you?
3. Look up the term "conceit" in your handbook or our databank.
How is the flea in this poem an example of a conceit? Is the
poet contradictory in comparing the flea first to what the lady denies
him, to an impregnated being, and then to the honor which might be lost
if the lady "yields" to him?.
4. Why
does the speaker say that to kill the flea would be "three sins in
killing three"?
5. In the third stanza, the woman has killed the
flea. What is the speaker's response to that?
6. What
is your response to the speaker's argument in the poem?
