To be canonized saints were required to have performed miracles. Donne claims that he and his lover achieved that through dying and rising again, in other words having sex, so they were resurrected … a blasphemous idea.

Of course, by “die” he means “have orgasms,” so it’s not that extraordinary that they were able to get up afterwards. Like the phoenix, their love is reborn and continues to live on completely refreshed.

This idea links cleverly with that of the phoenix, which also dies and rises from their ashes.

The poet digs up a range of bizarre negative characteristics which he offers for criticism, related to ageing, disease and physical detioration. The ‘five grey hairs’ is sarcastic; non-one would bother counting them and, in any case, Donne was a young man when this was written.

Note the alliterative, fricative ‘f’s in line three. We can imagine Donne spitting as he confronts his critic.

This is in effect the culmination of the argument; what he has been leading up to. He goes on to cite more practical issues.

“Your parents hate me, you hate me…but let’s not let that get in our way” This accurately reflects Donne’s early life and applied to his love and marriage to Anne Moore. Latterly, he became a minister of the Church and wrote devotional poetry, but in this poem the young, sexually frustrated man is dominant.

The speaker has wittily changed his argument to support his case. Killing the flea, that miniature “marriage temple,” made no difference whatsoever. Nor will it make any difference if she sleeps with him! Manipulation of his own failure for an ultimate success matches the manipulative and satirical tone of the entire poem, as is often found in metaphysical poetry.

‘yield'st’ shows what love really is to him: submission. Once she has sex with him, she becomes his. In the context, as you had to be a virgin to get married, this makes sense as she would have lost her freedom to choose.

Note this comment by Ann Hurley: “The lady’s gesture in Donne’s poem turn the Petrarchan situation of male seducer and female victim into a dialogue of wit between two equally qualified combatants.”

He’s stating that she’s been unnecessarily cruel as she has killed something that was completely innocent. However, because the flea has bitten and imbibed the blood of both of them, her act represents murder.