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Donne organized “The Flea” into three stanzas. For a poem that alludes to the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity, the tripartite structure has a clear numerological significance. The nine-line stanzas literally and figuratively multiply this significance in the way they contain three sets of three (i.e., 3 x 3 = 9). But aside from the formal symbolism enshrined in the three-stanza structure, it’s also important to note that each stanza marks a distinct stage in the speaker’s argument to his mistress. Furthermore, the stages of the argument are linked to actions that directly precede each stanza, but which aren’t directly narrated. For instance, the first stanza is implicitly preceded by the flea biting both the speaker and his mistress, which prompts the speaker’s thought about their blood mingling within the flea. Before the second stanza, the mistress raises her hand to kill the flea, which provokes the speaker to protest, claiming that killing the flea would mean killing a part of each of them. Finally, the mistress kills the flea before third stanza. The speaker then shifts tactics, arguing that since the flea’s death wasn’t injurious after all, they couldn’t possibly do more harm by having sex.

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