Go, and Catch a Falling Star

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Go and Catch a Falling Star [1]

• 1. It is a song from John Donne's collection Songs and Sonnets, in which all pieces could be sung out. Also, it is one of John Donne's negative love poems. The main idea is that there is no true love in the world. It consists of three parts. The first part shows that everything listed here is impossible. The second part says that anywhere and anytime people couldn't find true love. In the third part, the poet says that even if the impossible things were proved possible he couldn't believe it. The rhythm of the poem deviates from the conventional poems of the time. It consists of 3 nine-lined stanzas. With the exception of the 7th and 8th lines, the poem is written in iambic tetrameter and the 5th and 6th lines end with a feminine ending. The rhyme scheme is abab ccdd d.

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Go, and catch a falling star [2],

Get with child a mandrake root [3],

Tell me, where all past years are [4],

Or who cleft the Devil's foot [5],

Teach me to hear Mermaids singing [6],

Or to keep off envy's stinging [7],

And find

What wind

Serves to advance an honest mind.

2. Line 1: This is an uncommon abrupt beginning of a poem. The verbs “ go ” and “ catch ” here indicate that the poem is addressed to some listener. To catch a falling star is impossible.

Go, and Catch a Falling Star

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Go, and catch a falling star [2],

Get with child a mandrake root [3],

Tell me, where all past years are [4],

Or who cleft the Devil's foot [5],

Teach me to hear Mermaids singing [6],

Or to keep off envy's stinging [7],

And find

What wind

Serves to advance an honest mind.

Go, and Catch a Falling Star

3. Line 2: Mandrake is a type of plant from which drugs may be made, especially those causing sleep. The mandrake root is forked like the lower part of the male body. According to the Bible, the female could beget a child on a mandrake root. The normal order of the sentence is “ Get a mandrake with child ” . But to get a mandrake with child is a supreme impossibility.

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Go, and catch a falling star [2],

Get with child a mandrake root [3],

Tell me, where all past years are [4],

Or who cleft the Devil's foot [5],

Teach me to hear Mermaids singing [6],

Or to keep off envy's stinging [7],

And find

What wind

Serves to advance an honest mind.

Go, and Catch a Falling Star

4. Line 3: It is similar to one famous sentence given by the medieval French poet Villon “ Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan ” , which means “ Where has last

year's snow gone? ” It is a question impossible to answer.

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Go, and catch a falling star [2],

Get with child a mandrake root [3],

Tell me, where all past years are [4],

Or who cleft the Devil's foot [5],

Teach me to hear Mermaids singing [6],

Or to keep off envy's stinging [7],

And find

What wind

Serves to advance an honest mind.

Go, and Catch a Falling Star

5. Line 4: cleft: the past form of cleave. It is believed that the foot of the Devil is like that of the ox or the sheep. There is no possible answer to this question.

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Go, and catch a falling star [2],

Get with child a mandrake root [3],

Tell me, where all past years are [4],

Or who cleft the Devil's foot [5],

Teach me to hear Mermaids singing [6],

Or to keep off envy's stinging [7],

And find

What wind

Serves to advance an honest mind.

Go, and Catch a Falling Star

6. Line 5: Mermaids are imaginary sea creatures. Here it refers to the siren who enchanted Odysseus and his seamen (cf. Homer's Odyssey). There is no way to hear the mermaids' singing.

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Go, and catch a falling star [2],

Get with child a mandrake root [3],

Tell me, where all past years are [4],

Or who cleft the Devil's foot [5],

Teach me to hear Mermaids singing [6],

Or to keep off envy's stinging [7],

And find

What wind

Serves to advance an honest mind.

Go, and Catch a Falling Star

7. Line 6: “ envy's stinging ” means the biting of people's envy. Envy here is half personified, referring to the person who envies others. Actually in the world, nobody is free from someone else's envy. 23/4/19 8

Go, and Catch a Falling Star

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If thou beest borne to strange sights [8],

Things invisible to see [9],

Ride ten thousand days and nights [10],

Till age snow [11] white hairs on thee,

Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me[12]

All strange wonders that befell [13] thee,

And swear [14]

No where

Lives a woman true, and fair [15].

8. Line 10: If you are born with a strange gift that enables you to see sights that are rare. beest: be'st, be.

Go, and Catch a Falling Star

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If thou beest borne to strange sights [8],

Things invisible to see [9],

Ride ten thousand days and nights [10],

Till age snow [11] white hairs on thee,

Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me[12]

All strange wonders that befell [13] thee,

And swear [14]

No where

Lives a woman true, and fair [15].

Go, and Catch a Falling Star

9. Line 11: It is the appositive phrase of “ sights ” in the above line. Another explanation is that “ things invisible to see ” is in the inverted order, and that the normal order should be “ to see invisible things ” .

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If thou beest borne to strange sights [8],

Things invisible to see [9],

Ride ten thousand days and nights [10],

Till age snow [11] white hairs on thee,

Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me[12]

All strange wonders that befell [13] thee,

And swear [14]

No where

Lives a woman true, and fair [15].

Go, and Catch a Falling Star

10. Line 12: There are two explanations for it. One says that the verb “ ride ” indicates the imperative sentence; the other says that “ ride ” means “ if you ride ” .

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If thou beest borne to strange sights [8],

Things invisible to see [9],

Ride ten thousand days and nights [10],

Till age snow [11] white hairs on thee,

Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me[12]

All strange wonders that befell [13] thee,

And swear [14]

No where

Lives a woman true, and fair [15].

Go, and Catch a Falling Star

11. snow: whiten the hair of

12. Line 14: return'st: return; wilt: will

13. befell: happened to

14. And swear: And wilt swear: And will swear.

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If thou beest borne to strange sights [8],

Things invisible to see [9],

Ride ten thousand days and nights [10],

Till age snow [11] white hairs on thee,

Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me[12]

All strange wonders that befell [13] thee,

And swear [14]

No where

Lives a woman true, and fair [15].

Go, and Catch a Falling Star

15. Lines 17 ～ 18: All beautiful women are inconstant. The comma after “ true ” indicates a pause here, emphasizing that no woman enjoys the two kinds of virtue, true and fair, at the same time. fair: beautiful

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Go, and Catch a Falling Star

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If thou find’st [16] one, let me know,

Such a Pilgrimage [17] were sweet;

Yet do not, I would not go,

Though at next door we [18] might meet,

Though she were true, when you met her [19],

And last, till you write your letter [20],

Yet she

Will be

False, ere I come, to two, or three [21].

16. find'st: find

Go, and Catch a Falling Star

17. a Pilgrimage: a journey to some holy place, used sarcastically.

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If thou find’st [16] one, let me know,

Such a Pilgrimage [17] were sweet;

Yet do not, I would not go,

Though at next door we [18] might meet,

Though she were true, when you met her [19],

And last, till you write your letter [20],

Yet she

Will be

False, ere I come, to two, or three [21].

Go, and Catch a Falling Star

18. we: such a true female and I

19. Line 23: In the early English, the world “ though ” could be used to introduce the subjunctive mood.

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If thou find’st [16] one, let me know,

Such a Pilgrimage [17] were sweet;

Yet do not, I would not go,

Though at next door we [18] might meet,

Though she were true, when you met her [19],

And last, till you write your letter [20],

Yet she

Will be

False, ere I come, to two, or three [21].

Go, and Catch a Falling Star

20. Line 24: And her constancy could only last till you write her first letter. And last: And (her constancy) will last

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If thou find’st [16] one, let me know,

Such a Pilgrimage [17] were sweet;

Yet do not, I would not go,

Though at next door we [18] might meet,

Though she were true, when you met her [19],

And last, till you write your letter [20],

Yet she

Will be

False, ere I come, to two, or three [21].

Go, and Catch a Falling Star

21. Lines 25 ～ 27: Before I come to be her new lover again, she will have betrayed another two or three. false: unfaithful; ere: before

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