The poem “The Flea” by John Donne is a fun poem showing that something as small as a flea can be compared to premarital sex. The flea, presented as insignificant throughout the poem, is taken on a “sexual” journey without even knowing it. The poem maintains one speaker until the end, but interestingly, it has two important characters: the speaker and his lover. The audience is the speaker's lover, but she has a major role that goes beyond listening. As he tries to convince his lover to see that her virginity isn't all it's cracked up to be (insignificant), he compares a flea to sex in the process. He describes the flea as insignificant, even though the poem is primarily based on this little insect. In doing so, the speaker contradicts himself and gives importance to the “insignificant flea” throughout the poem. Ultimately, by comparing the chip to his lover's "insignificant" virginity, he shows that by trying to convince her to give it up, he is essentially giving her the power to make the final decision: whether to have sex or no, giving it importance even without a voice. Therefore, by trying to convince her through his speech to give up her "virginity" and give her the "power", he ultimately puts her "on top" with all the power by harassing her and essentially failing in his attempts to woo her. In the poem “The Flea,” we can already see that the main subject of the poem, the flea, is given more importance than is let on. “Flea” is capitalized, when it could easily have been a lowercase f. This automatically grabs the reader's attention because most capitalized words are important objects or places; in this case, the chip is a significant object and strangely enough......middle of paper......t to lose one's virginity. Even if the speaker dominates in words, he is dominated in power. As he continues to rant and rave about her virginity and sex throughout the poem, it is she who holds the final decision: she kills the flea and kills his chance to sleep with her. The ball starts in his court because he wants to sleep with her and that ball stays in his court until the final stanza. Throughout the poem, she maintains control and remains “on top.” Despite its lack of words, it is very important, just as the flea is in the speaker's simile. The woman demonstrates strength through her actions and by maintaining her own will. She has the power in the relationship and even though the speaker uses the clever metaphor of the flea, he ultimately fails to woo her. Thus, the lover, even without a voice, is “on top” in “La Puce »..”