The speaker makes one final attempt to convince the young woman to have sex with him after she seems to accept, at least partially, his analogy. After killing the flea, she says that neither of them are “the weaker now,” which reflects the widespread 17th-century belief that the sexual act makes people weaker each time they engage in it. The speaker responds by arguing that, since her fears of the flea are ultimately unfounded, then her other fears must also be false.

These lines use enjambment, or the flow of a thought or phrase that begins in one line and flows into subsequent lines. In this case, enjambment speeds up the rhythm of the final stanza to create anticipation about whether or not the speaker’s ingenious analogy is successful—though it seems that the young woman has firmly rejected the speaker by killing the flea.

The noun “jet” here refers to a semiprecious black stone. The speaker means that the inside of the flea is dark, which presumably enables the couple to better conceal themselves from discovery. Donne further emphasizes the sacred qualities of the flea’s body by comparing its appearance to that of a valuable stone.

The verb “to cloister” means to be sheltered from the outside world. A cloister is also a secluded walkway within a convent, church, or monastery. The religious connotations of Donne’s word choice indicates that the flea’s body is sacred; thus, the couple’s union within the flea’s “walls of jet” is not shameful.

The verb “to grudge” means to agree to something with reluctance. The speaker portrays the young woman’s protective parents as enemies from which they have hidden within the protective “living walls of jet” of the flea’s body. The reluctance of the young woman herself is shown through her inclusion in the “grudge,” but the speaker argues that their union has already happened within the flea.

Line thirteen features a diacope, or the repetition of a word or phrase with intervening words in between them. By repeating the word “marriage” in rapid succession, Donne lends musicality to the poem’s rhythm while also developing the central conceit between sexual love—which takes place in the “marriage bed”—and the flea, whose body provides the “marriage temple.”

Donne employs a metaphysical conceit between a flea bite and the relationship between the speaker and his love interest. A conceit is a particularly far-fetched metaphor, which is a comparison made between two dissimilar things by implying or stating that they are the same. A metaphysical conceit establishes a clever analogy between the spiritual and the physical. Here, Donne compares the spiritual experience of sexual love to the physical experience of a flea bite—specifically, the mingling of blood within the body of the flea that bit the speaker and the young woman.

Donne personifies the flea by suggesting that it is capable of wooing, or seducing, the young woman. Personification involves attributing human-like qualities or behaviors to a nonhuman thing. After arguing that sex is as small a thing as a flea bite, the speaker complains that the flea is able to suck blood from the young woman without having to woo her first. He, on the other hand, must exert effort to seduce her.

The noun “maidenhead” is another term for a woman’s virginity, which was highly valued in 17th-century England. The poem’s speaker attempts to convince his romantic interest that losing her virginity to him will carry no more sin or shame than a harmless flea bite.

The first line of the poem contains a caesura. A caesura is a break within a line of verse, usually in the form of punctuation such as a comma (,), em dash (—), or ellipses (...). Here, interrupting the first line with a comma creates a natural pause that emphasizes the presence of the flea—which is a crucial component of the poem’s metaphysical conceit—while also establishing rhythm.