Go
and catch a falling star: My appreciation
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.
This poem by John
Donne, a Metaphysical poet, is perhaps the first English poem I appreciate on
my first reading. I read it for the first time in my college days. It was
included in our course. At that time I was not familiar with the Metaphysical
poets. Neither was I familiar with the style and characteristics of the so-called
Metaphysical poets. However, I love the poet’s direct and straightforward
exposition of his disbelief in the existence of a woman with an honest mind.
Might be I have experienced or I would later experience what the poet has
experienced, I unhesitatingly agree/d with the idea of the poet. In a word, the poet’s main idea is that it is
difficult or rather impossible to find a woman with an honest mind.
Addressing a silent
listener, as in Dramatic Monologue, the poem may be called so, the poet tells
the latter to go and catch a falling star which is impossible for a normal
human being. He also commands his friend to get with a child a mandrake root,
which is used for medicinal purpose, again an impossible task for a child. A
child will not be able to differentiate which is and which is not a medicinal
plant. Next the poet asks his friend to tell him where all the past years are
or who cleft the devil’s feet, again impossible for any person, if he is not a
superhuman. Then he asks his friend to
teach him mermaid’s singing, which is again an impossible task, if the person
is not a mermaid himself. The poet further asks his friend to teach him how to
keep off envy’s stinging, which again is impossible, because no one as a human
being would be able to do away with an inherent nature of his being, here,
envy. The last part of the first part of the poem seems to be an affirmative
statement rather than an argumentative question. The poet tells his friend to
find whether at all any wind advances an honest mind. In other words, it is
impossible to find an honest mind just like the tasks listed out are all impossible
to accomplish.
In the second part
of the poem, the poet put forwards his idea with another argument. Here the
poet tells his friend that by chance there may be a woman with an honest mind just
like he (his friend) may be some an extraordinary person with superhuman power
that he may be born to see strange sights, things invisible to see, and have
the strength to ride ten thousand days and nights till his old age. Then, on
his return from his journey the poet would willingly listen to all the marvels
that he would have encountered during his long journey. But lo! The poet again
declares with confidence that even his superhuman friend will not find a single
woman who is both fair and true.
In the last part of
the poem, the poet tells his friend that even if he has come across at least
one fair and true woman, then he was fortunate enough. But quickly the poet
says that the woman would not yet be an ideal one but only seeming and only on
the face of it and maybe because of the shortness of time. To strengthen his
argument, the poet tells his friend that he would not set out to meet that
woman who seems to be honest even if he would meet her next door. The poet
tells his friend that even if the woman was true when he met her and perhaps
till the time he writes his letter to her. Yet, the poet will not trust her because the
woman would have lied to two or three persons already before he comes to meet
her.
Shakespeare might
have the same idea with John Donne when he says (in Hamlet) “Frailty, thy name is woman”.
