John Donne’s “The Bait”
John Donne’s “The Bait,” which parodies Christopher Marlowe’s famous love poem “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love,” provides the characteristic Donnean passionate plea to win the love of his lady.
Introduction and Text of “The Bait”
John Donne’s “The Bait” is one of many replies to Christopher Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love.” One of the most famous such “replies” is Sir Walter Ralegh’s “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd.”
Both Marlowe’s and Ralegh’s poems feature six quatrains; each quatrain displays in two riming couplets. Donne adds a quatrain to his parody, while retaining the same display of two riming couplets in each quatrain.
The Bait
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.
Commentary on “The Bait”
John Donne’s “The Bait” parodies Christopher Marlowe’s famous love poem “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” as it provides the characteristic Donnean passionate plea to win the love of his lady.
First Stanza: Embellishing a River Scene
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.
John Donne’s first line is a word for word copy of Marlowe’s, and the second line varies by only two words. And while Marlowe’s shepherd concentrates on the “hills and valleys, dale and field,” Donne’s speaker chooses to metaphorically create his scene with fish in “crystal brooks.”
Donne’s speaker, however, embellishes his river/fish scene transforming the sand into gold and fishing gear into “silken lines and silver hooks.” Just as Marlowe’s shepherd fashions a glowing, beautiful life to allure his love, Donne’s speaker also has some temptations to offer the target of his affection.
Second Stanza: Warming the Water
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.
Donne’s speaker glorifies his lady by giving her the power to warm the “whisp’ring river” with her eyes. He further embellishes her power by asserting that the fish will be enamored by her. The speaker asserts that those fish will be so taken with her that they will betray their own safety by begging to remain close to her.
Third Stanza: Enamored Fish
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.
When the speaker’s lady goes swimming among those fish, they will “amorously to thee swim.” Those enamored fish will be more interested in catching the speaker’s lady than the lady will be in catching them.
Fourth Stanza: She Is Light Itself
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.
If the lady prefers not to be seen in the sunlight or moonlight, such would be understandable because she is light itself and compared to her, both sun and moon remain dark. The speaker’s exaggeration continues as he claims that if he needs any light to see, he would not need the sun and moon because he has this glorious, light-reflecting woman.
Fifth Stanza and Sixth Stanza: A Lover’s Delusion
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
The speaker then turns from his metaphor making, announcing that he will not engage in the act of literal fishing, which would cause him to become uncomfortably cold and perhaps injure himself, particularly his legs on “shells and weeds.” Instead, he will allow a set of metaphorical hands to wring the fish from their “slimy nest.”
In both stanzas five and six, the speaker describes the real world of fish in rivers or brooks and asserts that those who go fishing cause the “poor fish” much misery by “strangling” and snaring them in a “windowy net.” The speaker makes it clear that the fantasy world of fish pursuing a beautiful lady in a crystal brook and a river warmed solely by the lady’s eye is just a lover’s delusion.
Seventh Stanza: No Need for Exaggeration
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.
Not needing to exaggerate his lover’s attraction, the speaker asserts, “For thee, thou need’st no such deceit.” She does not require little lies or big exaggerations to make her the perfect woman she is. The truth is all that needs to be told about this speaker’s lover because “thou thyself art thine own bait.”
She is the attraction, and if any other swain is not caught by her beauty, then the speaker declares that man is “wiser far than” the speaker is. He declares himself thus caught by the lady and therefore, there is no need to embellish as Marlowe’s shepherd had done in pursuit of his love.
Marlowe and Ralegh
- Christopher Marlowe. “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love.” Poetry Foundation. Accessed May 21, 2026.
- Sir Walter Ralegh. “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd.” Poetry Foundation. Accessed May 21, 2026.
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