John Donne was a metaphysical poet, the term first
used by John Dryden for his poetry. This song was published in 1633, two years
later, after the death of John Donne. The poem can be divided into three
stanzas. The poet is directly addressed to someone.
The poem is about the inconsistent nature of women. He says that finding an
honest and beautiful woman is impossible. Beauty and honesty can never go ahead.
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First Stanza
Go and catch a falling star,
Get with child a mandrake root,
Tell me where all the past years are,
Or who cleft the devil’s foot,
Teach me to hear mermaids singing,
Or, to keep off envy’s singing,
And find
What wind
Serves to advance an honest mind.
In the first stanza, the poet gives
seven impossible tasks to someone. Imperatively he says go and catch a falling
star. That is the first impossible task because a falling star has very high
speed and is impossible to detect. By putting the second impossible task, the
poet says to produce a child from a mandrake root (a human shape like herbs).
The figure is close to the man, but it isn’t easy to make a child from the
plant. Tell me where the past years have gone is again an impossible task to
bring in the past years. Time waits for no one, and anyone can never bring a
second.
The fourth task is the poet asking a
question who forked the foot of the devil? Here the poet used allusion to give
reference to Greek mythology. It is considered that someone forked the devil’s
foot, but none know who did this. In the fifth line, he d to tell the tasks
that teach me how mermaids sing. Mermaid is a female, like a creature having no
legs but fish. Envy is an intuitive quality of humans. John Milton also
mentioned it in ‘Paradise Lost. It will be difficult to remove jealousy, and no
one can be with such a feature. And tell me which way to give an honest mind’s
progress. The world does not like a natural person and never let him a chance
to flourish.
Second Stanza
If thou best born to strange sights,
Things invisible to see,
Ride ten thousand days and nights,
Till age snow white hairs on thee,
Thou, when thou return, wilt tell me,
All strange wonders that befell thee,
And swear,
Nowhere
Lives a woman true and fair.
In the second stanza, Donne continues
his flow and tells someone that if you are born with sharp mental power having
supernatural qualities, you can see things that common people can’t. Walk ten
thousand days and nights, approximately equal to 27 years, until your hairs
grow white, return and tell me what you have seen. And I strongly argue that
you never find such a woman who is beautiful as well as honest. One can
discover faithfulness in an ugly woman but not in a beautiful woman. All the
seven impossible tasks might be done or could be, but fair and beautiful women
are difficult to see anywhere.
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Third Stanza
If thou find one, let me know,
Such a pilgrimage was sweet;
Yet do not, I would not go,
Though at next door we might meet,
Though she were true when you met her,
And last, till you write your letter,
Yet she,
will be,
false, here I come, to two or three.
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Detailed yet amazing analysis.Keep up the good work.Gil.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much sir
ReplyDeleteI really needed an analysis on this
May God bless you
Its really helpfull
Keep up!
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