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'Song' John Donne

Introduction

John Donne, (b.1573-d.1631) was an English Metaphysical poet who studied in both Oxford and Cambridge. The genres which he focused on are satire, love poetry, elegy and sermons and his subjects were love, death, sexuality, and religion. Donne's poetry was first published c.1633. Songs and Sonnets, in which 'Song' was published, was written c.1590-1617.

A portrait of John Donne b.1573-d.1631

Colin Burrow introduces John Donne's poetry, writing that:

'Donne's earliest works were erotic elegies modelled on Ovid, and satires broadly influenced by the Roman poet Horace. These poems draw on and dramatize the experience of being young in London in the 1590s in a number of ways, and mark that experience, as much as the unique sensibility of Donne, as the start of metaphysicality.'

'Song' by Donne, is a poem that employs metaphysical conceit. As stated by Burrow, it is a reflection of experience. In particular, male experience of the supposed nature of women. This poem has also been included in Neil Gaiman's Stardust (novel).

The Poem

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,

And find

What wind

Serves to advance an honest mind.

If thou be’est born to strange sights,

Things invisible to see,

Ride ten thousand days and night,

Till age show white hairs on thee,

Thou, when thou return’st, wilt tell me

All strange wonders that befell thee,

And swear

Nowhere

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,

Thou at next door we might meet,

Thou 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.

Themes

1. Love
2. Relationships between men and women
3. Infidelity
4. Capriciousness
5. Gender
6. Sexuality
7. Mythology
8. Conceit
9. Metaphysical

Analysis

The persona is requesting of another figure within the narrative that they do impossible tasks such as, “catch a falling star”. These tasks are used as an extended metaphor to describe the capricious nature of women. The persona believes that no woman exists who is “true, and fair” and if they are they are likely to change. Harold Bloom describes the 'concept of conceit' as vital to Donne's poetry.

The line “Till age show white hairs on thee” depicts the romantic quest as being a long and arduous journey which is ultimately unattainable.

The first line "Go, and catch falling star" is an example of Donne's use of adynaton, as the persona is telling the reader to do the impossible.

Donne also shows a mood shift in this poem. The shift in mood is that of resolute pessimism to that of hope. In the first stanza he is instructing the reader to do something impossible, and yet in the next two stanzas he is showing them that there is a possibility to do what he is requiring of them as he starts the stanzas with "If". The use of "If" shows that there is a chance for them to achieve the impossible tasks that he has set forth to them. As such, Donne is also shown to employ the use of irony in the poem, as the persona is asking the reader to do the impossible, knowing that it is unachievable and yet, still longs for the possibility that they will be able to achieve it.

Structure

The poem is made up of three stanzas with a A,B,A,B,C,C,D,D,D rhyme structure. The rhyming triplet emphasises the finality of the final three lines of the persona’s argument. Each stanza is a separate point which leads up to the final conclusion: that women are false in nature.