Mark but this flea, and mark in this, How little that which thou deny'st me is; Me it sucked first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea, our two bloods mingled be; Confess it, this cannot be said A sin, or shame, or loss of maidenhead, Yet this enjoys before it woo, And pampered swells with one blood made of two, And this, alas, is more than we would do. Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare, Where we almost, nay more than married are. This flea is you and I, and this Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is; Though parents grudge, and you, we'are met, And cloistered in these living walls of jet. Though use make you apt to kill me, Let not to this, self murder added be, And sacrilege, three sins in killing three. Cruel and sudden, hast thou since Purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence? In what could this flea guilty be, Except in that drop which it sucked from thee? Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou Find'st not thyself, nor me the weaker now; 'Tis true, then learn how false, fears be; Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me, Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ODE TO THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY by SIDNEY LANIER HATCHING; FOR DAW AUNG SAN SUU KYI by KAREN SWENSON BEYOND THE POTOMAC by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 69. AUTUMN IDLENESS by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI CIVIL WAR by CHARLES DAWSON SHANLY IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 54 by ALFRED TENNYSON SONNET WRITTEN IN THE FALL OF 1914: 3 by GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY |