Song, Go and Catch a Falling Star by John Donne || Summary, Stanza wise Analysis, Metaphysical Poetry

 

INTRODUCTION:

John Donne (1572-1631) the father or pioneer of Metaphysical poetry in English literature has written two types of poems in his life time – Love poems and Devotional Poems. ‘Song’ or ‘Go and Catch a Falling Star’ (1633) is a poem written on the theme of WOMEN’S INFIDELITY/UNFAITHFULNESS’. Here, the poet tells that there are no women in the world who are both beautiful and faithful.

STANZAWISE EXPLANATION:

In the first stanza, the poet asks the reader to do several impossible tasks like to catch a falling star, to get a mandrake root (Biblical reference), to tell where the time has gone by, to tell who divided the devil’s foot into two parts, to teach him to listen to the mermaid’s singing, to avoid jealousy and to tell which wind advances an honest mind.

All these jobs are impossible for a common man.

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.

 

SECOND STANZA:

Here, the poet asks us to use our best power of seeing and asks us to travel for ten thousand days and nights and travel until we grow old. The poet says that when we return, we will swear that nowhere lives a woman who is both fair and faithful.

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.

 

THIRD STANZA:

Here, the poet says that if at all if we met a woman who is both fair and faithful, now when you write a letter to her, she might have cheated at least one or two or three men.

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.

 

THEME OF THE POEM:

Here, the poet has expressed his feelings about the women in general. According to the poet, all women are unfaithful or infidel. The poet believes that it is impossible to find out a woman in this world who is both beautiful as well as faithful.

FORM OF THE POEM:

The poem is written in three stanzas of nine lines each. All these stanzas have the rhyming pattern of ABAB CC DDD.

METER:

The predominant meter in ‘Go and catch a falling star’ is a forceful trochaic tetrameter. Trochee is a meter having two syllables, the first one strong and the second one weak.

Go and catch a falling star,
Get with child a mandrake root

The seventh and eighth lines of all three stanzas are iambic monometer. Iamb is a meter having two syllables, the first one is weak and the second one is strong.

And find
What wind

IMAGES AND ALLUSIONS:

The poet has created some visual images or pictures like “catching a falling star”, “growing older with white hair” and so on.

Moreover, there are references to the Bible and some mythological stories of mandrake root too.

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