John Donne `The Bait`

Frequently , in evaluating John Donne 's The Bait ' commentators will agree that the motivating theme in the poem is that of parody especially with the situated concern of mocking the over-stylization of the pastoral love lyric (Ousby 33-7 ) A courtly lyric , The Bait ' is seen to serve , to court an unknown woman while it courts the audience A self-serving poem as it is a poem that mocks while it grants favors to the ear , there is a mixture of the ugly and overdone along with the sweet and gentle innocence through which the

best of language is conveyed

If the pastoral is nature at its most perfect and artificially sustaining , to mock it would be to use nature against itself . The poem starts spreading out in parody in the second stanza with the lines And there th ' enamour 'd fish will stay /Begging themselves they may betray ( The Bait . Donne makes it ugly by using the word fish instead of a word that carries a similar meaning but sounds much better Donne could have talked about salmon as they stray /angled at the water they beckon and play ' for example . The word fish is covered with a fishy odor that makes one be overcome with distaste while at the same time insulting one 's eyes as a generic fish is typically not a prize for the eyes

Relying on convention , Donne nevertheless uses convention against itself . If specific types of fish are so often relied upon for metaphorical value , then...