| John Donne (1572–1631). The Poems of John Donne. 1896. | | | | Songs and Sonnets | | 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. | |
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| There will the river whisp’ring run | 5 |
| Warm’d by thy 1 eyes, more than the sun; | |
| And there th’ enamour’d 2 fish will stay, 3 | |
| Begging themselves they may betray. | |
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| When thou wilt swim in that live bath, | |
| Each fish, which every channel hath, | 10 |
| Will amorously to thee swim, 4 | |
| Gladder to catch thee, than thou him. | |
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| If thou, to be so seen, be’st loth, | |
| By sun or moon, thou dark’nest both, | |
| And if myself 5 have leave to see, | 15 |
| I need not their light, having thee. | |
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| Let others freeze with angling reeds, | |
| And cut their legs with shells 6 and weeds, | |
| Or treacherously poor fish beset, | |
| With strangling 7 snare, 8 or windowy net. | 20 |
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| Let coarse bold hands from slimy nest | |
| The bedded fish in banks out-wrest; | |
| Or 9 curious traitors, sleeve-silk 10 flies, | |
| Bewitch poor fishes’ wand’ring eyes. 11 | |
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| For thee, thou need’st no such deceit, | 25 |
| For thou thyself art thine own bait: | |
| That fish, that is not catch’d thereby, | |
| Alas! is wiser far 12 than I. | |
| | | Note 1. l. 6. 1669, thine [back] | | Note 2. l. 7. Walton, enamelled [back] | | Note 3. l. 7. 1669, play [back] | | Note 4. l. 11. Walton. Most amorously to thee will swim [back] | | Note 5. l. 15. Walton, mine eyes [back] | | Note 6. l. 18. So 1635, Walton; 1633, which shells [back] | | Note 7. l. 20. 1669, winding [back] | | Note 8. l. 20. Walton, snares [back] | | Note 9. l. 23. Walton, Let [back] | | Note 10. l. 23. So 1635; 1633, sleeve sick [back] | | Note 11. l. 24. Walton, To witch poor wand’ring fishes’ eyes [back] | | Note 12. l. 28. Walton, Is wiser far, alas [back] | | |
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