I enjoy the poem "The Flea" by John Donne for various reasons. I encountered this poem before so I have some prior knowledge that helped my understanding.
The first thing that caught my interest was the strange outlook that the speaker (a man that experienced a flea bite during the Black Plague) had on such a serious occurrence. In line 4 the speaker says "And in this flea our two bloods mingled be". The speaker later in the poem (lines 12-13) say "This flea is you and I, and this/Our marriage bed and marriage temple is". The fact that Donne explored such a odd perspective of a topic that would otherwise be deadly was interesting. While others would have viewed getting the Plague as lethal, the speaker is only interested in the fact that he and his love interest are connected through the bite of the flea. The first time I read this poem I recall being uneasy due to the point of the speaker. But, the more I read and understood the background and setting, I admired the fact that during such a deadly period it could be some slight comical relief.
I'm interested in talking more about your prior knowledge about this poem. I do want to clarify that the Black Plague happened a couple hundred years before John Donne was born. His poetry is actually usually described as pretty erotic.
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