The Bait!!!

In John DOnne's "The Bait" he uses conciet and diction to show the power that women withhold. Throughout this piece he consistantly shows how the bait has the ability lure in fish because it has alluring characteristics. This bait is not like any other because it is unusally and not average. This bait is uniquely wise...wiser than the speaker. What could be wise, and intelligent yet capivating and suave? The answer to this question is a women and who better to be a fish than a man? This is the conceit that Donne within this poem, he chooses his words very carfully to show exactly how the speaker feels about this particular bait.

In the 1st stanza the speaker is trying to convince this bait to come be with him. But he doesn't approach her as if she was a average person, he approaches her with this very romantic mood. Donne conveys this by using the word"my luver", not my girlfriend or boo, not even his significant other. The word "lover" is an intimate word. The fact that the speaker wants her to be his lover shows the affect this bait has on him, it shows that she has caught his attention. and has manipulated his emotions and is in control of there relationship. She has the ability to decline his offer to be his "lover" or to accept it. In the last stanza it is also shown that the bait controls the speakers emotions because usually men in particular dont admit that they have lost. But Donne's uses the words "Alas, is wiser far than me". The speaker has lost to this bait, she is wiser. He can't win.

This women or bait is in control of the fish that she captures. This is shown in the last stanza when Donne uses the words "For thou thyself art thine own bait:". If this women is her own bait that mens she has no competition because she is so powerful. She can't be lured in by anyone else because she can have whatever she wants, no one is like her.

In conclusion, Donne uses this conceit to prove that women are bait for men. They use cunning and trickery to lure in men. Women are very interesting creatures with there own style.