"John Donne argues in verse." Illustrate this statement with special reference to "The Flea."

This is an excellent poem to analyse when we consider
Donne's style and talent as a poet. This poem is based around a sophisticated argument
where the speaker tries to persuade his lover to sleep with him. She is being "coy" and
refusing to have sex with him, and thus the speaker argues that, because they have both
been bitten by the same flea, their blood mingles together inside the flea's body. There
is nothing wrong with this, the speaker protests:

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Thou know'st that this cannot be said
A
sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead
;

However, ruefully he sighs
that this is "more than we would do." In the second stanza he takes his argument to
absurd lengths, actually trying to suggest that the blood that is intermingled in the
flea assumes spiritual importance, as he suggests that they are symbolically married now
that their blood is together:

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This flea is you and I, and this
Our
marriage bed, and marriage temple is.
Though parents grudge, and you, we're
met,
And cloister'd in these living walls of
jet.

Though they have not
"met" in reality, inside the flea, they are enjoying an intimacy far more close than
they are currently enjoying. So, as they have already "joined," it is nothing for them
to join physically now and sleep together. Thus we can see that this poem demonstrates
the truth of your statement: John Donne argues in verse, presenting a very sophisticated
argument using metaphysical imagery, comparing the flea and their blood in it to a
"marriage temple."