My assigned poem is titled The Bait written by John Donne. The poem in essence is about a man convincing his lover to come stay with him, presumably in marriage. He does this by describing the alluring attributes of his lover. He compares their life together to a river teeming with fish. He tells her that she will not have to catch fish in a messy manner, but rather she will serve as her own bait, and the fish will willingly and peacefully come to her. He ends the poem with a strange yet endearing compliment stating that any fish that can willingly refuse her “bait”, or her charm, is a fish wiser than himself.

However, critics have described this poem as a different type of spiritual metaphor. Instead of comparing Christ traditionally to a shepard and his followers to sheep, Donne instead compares Christ to his beloved and his followers to fish. In the second stanza, Christ (his beloved), outshines the sun and stars, which is a biblical reference. Next, Donne describes how the fish will follow his beloved in the water, similarly to how Christ’s followers follow him. In stanzas five and six, the poem takes a turn and talks about the harsh difficulties other fisherman face and as a result, the deceptions they use to trick the fish. This is viewed as an attack on the false religious teachers who try to deceit their followers. Donne then turns this around by saying that the true beloved (Christ) has no need for deceit.

This poem is satirical because of the way it secretly paints the picture of religion through a new perspective using fish, a river, and witty metaphors and diggs. Donne’s use of wit to attack the false teachers and those who deem “too wise” to latch on to the beloved’s bait makes this a satirical poem. It is not low humour about an unimportant subject, but is its rather higher level thinking wit, used to describe a subject regarding eternity. The poem can be viewed in many entirely different ways, which makes it that much more satirical.