第22次开课

开始:2026-03-01

截止:2026-06-30

课程已进行至

7/18周

成绩预发布时间 2026-06-27

期末考试截止时间 2026-06-24 00:00

教学团队

河北师范大学
教授
河北师范大学
教授
河北师范大学
副教授
邢台学院
副教授
河北师范大学
副教授
河北师范大学
讲师
河北师范大学
助教

课程特色

视频(60)
PPT(31)
作业(29)
讨论(12)
文档(28)
考试(1)

“The Flea” – A Brief Discussion of John Donne

By 叶馨楠 12天前 11次浏览

In “The Flea,” John Donne transforms a seemingly trivial creature into a provocative argument for seduction. The speaker points to a flea that has bitten both him and his beloved, claiming that their blood already mingles inside it—a union more intimate than what the woman has so far allowed.

The poem’s brilliance lies in its metaphysical conceit: the flea becomes a symbol of marriage, a “temple” where their lives are joined without sin or shame. Donne deliberately sacrilegious language—“three lives in one flea” parodies the Holy Trinity—to blur the line between the sacred and the carnal. What shocks is not just the audacity of using a flea as a religious emblem, but the implication that physical union is too trivial to refuse.

The woman’s act of killing the flea in the final stanza shifts the poem’s logic. The speaker pivots, arguing that if killing the flea causes no real loss, then surrendering her virginity should be equally inconsequential. The poem thus becomes a playful yet intellectually sharp exploration of desire, persuasion, and the tension between bodily pleasure and moral restraint.

Through this unlikely conceit, Donne demonstrates his signature ability: to yoke together the lowly and the lofty, the erotic and the theological, in a tightly woven argument that delights even as it unsettles.

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