Thoughts on "The Bait"
In the poem The Bait by John Donne he describes the good and the bad thing about love. He tries to portray what love really is. To achieve this he changes his diction from that of a loving and caring tone to that of an alarming tone. He also uses word choice to do this.
In the first half of the poem the speaker talks about the good things about love. Donne uses the metaphor of bait to represent love. Just as fishes are drawn to bait the bait says that people are drawn to love as if it is something enjoyable. Donne uses words such as golden, crystal, pleasures, enarmour’d and amorously.
In the second half of the poem Donne switches the diction and starts using alarming and upsetting words such as freeze, cut treacherously and strangling and snare. He does this to emphasize the change that can happen with after you are in love.
In conclusion the speaker then says that those who don’t fall in love are smarter than he was. He says this because those who avoid love or prefer not to fall for loves bait are smart because they will not be hurt by love’s deceit.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
The Good Morrow
In the poem The Good-Morrow, Donne uses word choice and diction to show the reader the narrators’ love for his lover through a romantic tone.
In the first stanza Donne writes about how the narrator and his lover were metaphorically asleep. The narrator wandered around aimlessly before meeting his love in the first line. He states that before they met or loved each other they did not know anything especially that of beauty. We can see this when he says, “twas but a dream of thee”. It is very obvious that also in this stanza Donne writes in the past tense, dwelling on their past experiences. To create a romantic tone in this stanza he uses words such as loved, pleasures, childishly, beauty and dream. These words create a certain feeling within the reader
After they are acquainted and awakened in the second stanza Donne switches the tense and starts using present tense. In this stanza he treats there love as if it were a journey, with things to be discovered. He wants them to go hand in hand on this journey so they could be close and be one.
From other Donne poems I have realized that he uses the image of reflections in his poems about love and he does this in the final stanza in the first line. He starts to mention that they are perfect for each other and they are meant for each other. He uses metaphors such as hemispheres to describe them and their love for each other. Overall Donne just wants to show how true love is supposed to be.
In the first stanza Donne writes about how the narrator and his lover were metaphorically asleep. The narrator wandered around aimlessly before meeting his love in the first line. He states that before they met or loved each other they did not know anything especially that of beauty. We can see this when he says, “twas but a dream of thee”. It is very obvious that also in this stanza Donne writes in the past tense, dwelling on their past experiences. To create a romantic tone in this stanza he uses words such as loved, pleasures, childishly, beauty and dream. These words create a certain feeling within the reader
After they are acquainted and awakened in the second stanza Donne switches the tense and starts using present tense. In this stanza he treats there love as if it were a journey, with things to be discovered. He wants them to go hand in hand on this journey so they could be close and be one.
From other Donne poems I have realized that he uses the image of reflections in his poems about love and he does this in the final stanza in the first line. He starts to mention that they are perfect for each other and they are meant for each other. He uses metaphors such as hemispheres to describe them and their love for each other. Overall Donne just wants to show how true love is supposed to be.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
