It suck’d me first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled be. The flea has an enviable position in literature, especially from the fables of Aesop to the various flea-inspired ...

Kayla Lian and Jacklyn Maddux (left to right) will perform in Shaking the Tree's "One Flea Spare." In John Donne's poem "The Flea," the speaker tries to convince his virginal lover of the harmlessness ...

The Flea, starring Toby Jones as the insect and Conrad Nelson as the poet, is based on the intoxicating poetry and turbulent life of the young John Donne. The Flea focuses on the year 1601 when Donne, ...

John Donne is a divisive guy. Few question the 17th century poet’s brilliance, but readers have long debated whether his mind-bending conceits are worth the effort of deciphering them. Case in point: ...

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the birth in Leningrad of poet Joseph Brodsky. In 1981, I interviewed Brodsky in London on the occasion of another anniversary -- 350 years since the death of poet ...