“The Flea,” by John Donne, is a poem which shows a man’s desire for a woman, and does so using complex metaphors. Throughout the poem, the use of figurative language develops into the meaning of the story. His use of metaphors and allusions all add to what the fleas is representing throughout the poem, which is a sexual relationship that the speaker wants to have with the women. All these components help us as readers to see how the use of figurative language develops into the meaning of the poem. In the first line of the poem, the speaker mentions "the flea," showing the importance it will have in the rest of the poem. After the speaker acknowledges the flea, he says, “It suck’d me first, and now sucks thee, /and in the flea our two bloods mingled be” (3-4). When the speaker says this phrase, he is getting very excited for the fact that their blood is mingling inside the flea. We can really see how badly he wants to have sex with her in the next line where it states, “Thou know'st that this cannot be said/ a sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead” (5-6). In these lines the speaker is comparing the mixing of the blood to a sexual relationship. When he talks about “the loss of Maidenhead,” that is referring to the women losing her virginity. In the speaker's’ mind, she does not want to have sex with him because she does not want to loose her virginity. He continues to try to convince her by saying that if the flea can suck her blood and it not be a sin, that should not be any difference then him having sex with her. Here the speaker is almost jealous of the flea. He seems jealous because the flea is doing more to her then he will ever be able to do. In line 7-9, it states,” Yet this enjoys before it woo, / and pamper’d swells with one blood made of two;/ and this, alas! Is more than we would do.” We also see jealousy in these lines because he believes the flea is enjoying her blood without having to work at it like he does. Therefore, the flea is doing more to her then he will do, just like he states in the text. In the next stanza, the speaker continues to try to convince this woman to be with him. Even though the woman is clearly resisting almost all of his explanations, he continues on with his metaphor about their potential sexual relations: “O stay, three lives in one flea spare, where we almost, yea, more than married are.” (10-11) In this line, the woman is realizing that the flea is on her and she goes to kill the flea. The speaker then jumps in and tells her that she cannot kill that flea. He does not want her to kill it because he is convinc