Analysis of The Bait
John Donne 1572 (London) – 1631 (London)
Come live with me, and be my love,
And we will some new pleasures prove
Of golden sands, and crystal brooks,
With silken lines, and silver hooks.
There will the river whispering run
Warm'd by thy eyes, more than the sun;
And there the 'enamour'd fish will stay,
Begging themselves they may betray.
When thou wilt swim in that live bath,
Each fish, which every channel hath,
Will amorously to thee swim,
Gladder to catch thee, than thou him.
If thou, to be so seen, be'st loth,
By sun or moon, thou dark'nest both,
And if myself have leave to see,
I need not their light having thee.
Let others freeze with angling reeds,
And cut their legs with shells and weeds,
Or treacherously poor fish beset,
With strangling snare, or windowy net.
Let coarse bold hands from slimy nest
The bedded fish in banks out-wrest;
Or curious traitors, sleeve-silk flies,
Bewitch poor fishes' wand'ring eyes.
For thee, thou need'st no such deceit,
For thou thyself art thine own bait:
That fish, that is not catch'd thereby,
Alas, is wiser far than I.
Scheme | XXAA BBCC DDEE XXFF GGHH IIJJ XXKK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (57%) |
Metre | 11110111 01111101 11010101 11010101 110101001 11111101 0101111 10011101 11110111 111100101 11111 1111111 111111111 11111111 0111111 11111101 11011101 01111101 111101 11001111 11111101 01010111 110010111 01110111 111111101 1111111 11111111 01110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,107 |
Words | 185 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 114 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 11, 2023
- 57 sec read
- 299 Views
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