Song (Go And Catch A Falling Star) Analysis

Go and catch a falling star,

Get with child a mandrake root,

Tell me where all past years are,

Or who cleft the Devil's foot,

Teach me to hear mermaids singing,

Or to keep off envy's stinging,

And find

What wind

Serves to advance an honest mind.If thou be'st 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'st, wilt tell me

All strange wonders that befell thee,

And swear

No where

Lives a woman true, and fair.If thou find'st one, let me know,

Such a pilgrimage were 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, ere I come, to two or three.

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A very crafty poem that shows Donne's view on women in general, but only his view. It seems as though the poem is itching for the reader to figure out an answer to a riddle because of the imagery and ideas Donne paints in the mind. He uses witty, subtle, and argumentative words to express feelings as well as a colloquial tone that at the same time tries to reach beyond the meaning. This poem does show a side of the speaker that is maybe heartbroken or hurt by a woman.

| Posted on 2008-12-01 | by a guest

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The last stanza when the letter is mentioned it is very possible he referrs to a letter reaching him, the author, and by the time it reaches him she would no longer be true.
In the first Stanza mandrake root, othetr than taking a human form is also poisonous for consumption and if found by a woman she would become pregnant, so "Get with child a mandrake root" you cannot ipregnate a plant, much less one that takes teh form of a male but mayhap that was not his only meaning....

| Posted on 2008-10-07 | by a guest

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| Posted on 2008-03-30 | by a guest

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Catch a falling star - is imposable
Which means that "catch" a virgin woman is imposable too

| Posted on 2008-03-17 | by a guest

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The poem talks about the difficulties to find a woman that is both single and virginal.

"Though she were true, when you met her,
And last, till you write your letter,
Yet she
Will be
False, ere I come, to two or three."

Stating that by the time you have found this supposedly fair and "true" woman, by the time you write a love letter to her she would have already slept with several men, therefore the persona believes that it is hard to find a true woman and uses the myths at the beginning of the poem to back up this arguement.


| Posted on 2007-05-23 | by a guest

.: poetic analysis :.

The first stanza refers to utter imposibilities, it is not possible to catch a falling star, in the time, a falling star was a thing of great destruction (it is of course referring to a comet). A mandrake root is a plant which can take human form, however when it does is always male, meaning it is impossible to make pregnant. Mermaids, as referred to in the fifth line are mythological greek creatures who with their singing lured sailors to their deaths, by sitting on rocks and enchanting the brain of a sailor to crash, whilst the mermaid slipped enigmatically away. The utter frustration with this scenario is that mermaids were actually genderless, which meant that their beauty was for nothing but to kill, it was said that as soon as the singing of a siren was heard, you were doomed to certain death (the only one to have escaped this fate was oddysseus). Envies stinging was supposed to be imposible to avoid, envy is often anthropomorphasised as a scorpion, and once a scorpion has you in it's vice, just as envy does, it is impossible to escape. The next 11 lines are referring to the fact that the previous were all impossibilities, however they are more likely to happen than to find a woman fair and true the following lines, up to the end suggest that even if one were to find a woman fair and true, she would stay that way for so little time that when she were brought to him, she would no longer be.

| Posted on 2007-03-06 | by a guest

.: poetic analysis :.

The first stanza refers to utter imposibilities, it is not possible to catch a falling star, in the time, a falling star was a thing of great destruction (it is of course referring to a comet). A mandrake root is a plant which can take human form, however when it does is always male, meaning it is impossible to make pregnant. Mermaids, as referred to in the fifth line are mythological greek creatures who with their singing lured sailors to their deaths, by sitting on rocks and enchanting the brain of a sailor to crash, whilst the mermaid slipped enigmatically away. The utter frustration with this scenario is that mermaids were actually genderless, which meant that their beauty was for nothing but to kill, it was said that as soon as the singing of a siren was heard, you were doomed to certain death (the only one to have escaped this fate was oddysseus). Envies stinging was supposed to be imposible to avoid, envy is often anthropomorphasised as a scorpion, and once a scorpion has you in it's vice, just as envy does, it is impossible to escape. The next 11 lines are referring to the fact that the previous were all impossibilities, however they are more likely to happen than to find a woman fair and true the following lines, up to the end suggest that even if one were to find a woman fair and true, she would stay that way for so little time that when she were brought to him, she would no longer be.

| Posted on 2007-03-06 | by a guest

.: :.

The persona in this poem, which is also a dramatic monologue, is telling his listener about the fickleness and inconstancy of women. His use of mythological charactes and situations suggests that a constant woman is also just a figment of the imagination. In the second stanza, he tells his listener that if they were to ride for an age they would still never be able to find a woman who is "true, and fair". And, he continues in the thrid stanza, even if he did, by the time the persona meets her, she will have shown her true colours.

| Posted on 2005-05-08 | by Approved Guest