The Bait
How does Donne's landscape in The Bait contrast with Marlowe's, The Passionate Shepherd to his Love?
The Bait
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The Bait
Donne responds to Marlowe's idyllic landscape by setting his poem near the sea, moving away from a pastoral mode and into a piscatory one. This setting is significant because it represents Donne's break with the pastoral mode and therefore the poetic tradition Marlowe and other poets championed. By introducing a seascape to his poem, Donne subtly announces his innovative way of using poetry to think through highly intellectualized concepts of erotic and spiritual love. The piscatory nature of "The Bait" allows Donne to entertain different power dynamics in romantic love and to explore the manifestation of mutuality in verse.
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