Thursday, February 10, 2011
'The Baite' R. Abbott
First and foremost, the rhyme scheem for this poem is AABBCC and so on. Another interesting point that the reader will notice immediately is Donne's alterations in spelling of many words (this may in fact just be the olde English spelling perhaps). Furthermore, the poem is broken down into 7 quatraines. Donne essentially paints a picture of a fishing trip with the woman he is in love with. In the first line of the second quatraine, he uses personification when describing the river - "there will the river whispering runne." And on the next line uses synecdoche when he says "thy eyes." In the fourth quatraine, Donne uses a metaphor to compare his lover to the light he needs to see where he is going. In the fifth quatraine, I believe he uses the "angling reeds" as a symbol for all other bad lovers in the world when compared to his girl. In the sixth stanza, Donne writes "let coarse bold hands, from slimy nest..." first appealing to the reads sight, then sense of touch - synesthesia. In the last quatraine, Donne brings the whole poem together when he informs the reader that this woman is his bait, saying the fish is much smarter than him for not chasing after her when she jumps into the water for a swim.
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In this poem, Donne essentially parallels people (mostly men) chasing after the one they love (bait) as fish through a well crafted conceit. Donne makes a poetically typical metaphor about the sun paling in comparison to the warmth of his lover’s eyes. He goes on further to say that if he were reluctant enough to see her (like a lucky fisherman finding the best fish in the river), he will no longer need the light of the sun or moon because of her radiance. Donne goes on to express his sympathy for “poor fishes” who are duped by “sleavesilke flies” which are meant to be the bait of fly fisherman uses. By using this metaphor, Donne means that all other men are foolish for chasing any other lover than his because she is the best. In the last stanza, Donne admits that he himself is somewhat of a wishful thinker for assuming he will be able to catch his bait, and that the one fish who is not chasing after it is actually wiser than he.
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