The bait

In John Donne's, "The Bait" Donne uses metaphors and diction to show how women, in a sense, or are more like the bait in a pond and how the men are the fish. Donne talks about how the bait lures him in throughout the entire poem and also shows how the other men are lucky from straying from the bait.
Through the first half of the poem Donne shows the bait as something that he needs to have. Using lines like "Warm'd by thy eyes, more than the sun;" shows that, at least in the beginning, that Donne wants the confort of this bait. This is the one thing that he wants more than any other and that he is the best "fish" for this bait. Donne also shows his love for this bait through all stanza's comparing himslef to other fish and bettering himself.
The bottom half of the poem Donne realizes that he is entrapped by this bait. This bait, being a woman, has trapped him and he needs it more than anything. He now compliments the other fish for not being lured in. Telling them in stanza five "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." He warns them of the danger of love and this bait that women are throwing out. This is Donne's main point through the poem. The bait is not actually his love but more like his trap or prison. The bait has captured him.