John Donne: Poems Lesson Plan

"The Flea" is a strange kind of poem, which many people over the years have rushed to defend, further demonstrating its controversy and the perception that the poem may need defending. What do you think one might find objectionable about the poem? How might the elements of the poem that some might object to today differ from what might have upset people in Donne's time?

This poem can be used to start conversations both on Donne's strange use of imagery and his views about women. Some objections to "The Flea" have been aesthetic: some people reading Donne found his imagery not just bizarre, but ugly. They object to the association of something as great as love with a little,...