John Donne
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. | ||
5 | There will the river whispering run | |
Warmed by thy eyes more than the sun. | ||
And there th inamoured fish will stay, | ||
Begging themselves they may betray. | ||
When thou wilt swim in that live bath, | ||
10 | Each fish, which every channel hath, | |
Will amorously to thee swim, | ||
Gladder to catch thee, than thou him. | ||
If thou, to be so seen, beest loth, | ||
By sun or moon, thou darknest both, | ||
15 | And if myself have leave to see, | |
I need not their light having thee. | ||
Let others freeze with angling reeds, | ||
And cut their legs with shells and weeds, | ||
Or treacherously poor fish beset, | ||
20 | With strangling snare, or windowy net. | |
Let coarse bold hands from slimy nest | ||
The bedded fish in banks out-wrest, | ||
Or curious traitors, sleavesilk flies, | ||
Bewitch poor fishes wandring eyes. | ||
25 | For thee, thou needst no such deceit, | |
For thou thyself art thine own bait; | ||
That fish, that is not catched thereby, | ||
Alas, is wiser far than I. | ||
Robert Clark