Many metaphors are employed within Gascoigne's poem, relating the speaker's troubles to understandable situations that allow readers to imagine and empathize with the speaker's situation. With a metaphor consisting of the mouse and bait (lines 5-6), the mouse has been able to escape a trap and fears of being trapped again. This compares to the speaker’s relationship because it implies that his relationship with the woman is toxic, relating the woman to the trap and himself to the mouse, the woman effectively trapping him into the toxic relationship. A second metaphor consists of a fly
Many metaphors are employed within Gascoigne's poem, relating the speaker's troubles to understandable situations that allow readers to imagine and empathize with the speaker's situation. With a metaphor consisting of the mouse and bait (lines 5-6), the mouse has been able to escape a trap and fears of being trapped again. This compares to the speaker’s relationship because it implies that his relationship with the woman is toxic, relating the woman to the trap and himself to the mouse, the woman effectively trapping him into the toxic relationship. A second metaphor consists of a fly