Donne’s Originality
Flea was a popular subject for ribald and amatory during the Renaissance. In this respect, the Renaissance poets imitated Ovid who has a poem on the subject. Such poets envied the flea for it had a free excess to the body of the beloved. But such excess was denied to them. Donne’s originality lies in the fact that his interest is not primarily in the flea, but in the exploration of love-relationship. He emphasises the need of physical union, but physical love merges with the spiritual. The lyric has an intensity and immediacy of emotion, which distinguishes it from other poems on the subject.