Analysis

 Analysis  of the song Go and catch a falling star

 

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

In the first stanza of this piece the speaker begins by telling the listener to “Go and catch a falling star.” It is for this line that the poem is best known and is only the first representative of the outlandish tasks the speaker sets out. The next is to “Get with child,” or impregnate, a “mandrake root.” Both of these statements have a magical mood about them. The mandrake root is commonly associated with witchcraft or hallucinogens. 

He goes on to ask the listener to “Tell” him facts about the past, an impossibility as no one can truly know the history. The next statement refers to the “cleft” in the devil’s foot. He wants to know how it got there, or more simply, how it was decided which form the devil was to take.

In the next section of the first stanza, he asks the listener to teach him to “hear mermaids singing” or alternatively how to “keep off envy’s stinging.” There is an interesting contrast in these requests between personal need and personal interest .In the final tercet of rhyming lines, he adds that he wants to know what makes .people honest. What “wind” or for what reason is some people honest and some deceitful.  

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

In the second stanza, he reveals the true purpose of this piece, to complain about the unfair way he has been treated by women. He expresses his belief that there are no women who are “true, and fair” or honest and beautiful, in the world. In the first lines, he tells the listener that maybe if “thou be’st born to strange sight.” Or more simply, if you are used to seeing unbelievable things, then you should “Ride ten thousand days and nights” and seek as many “strange wonders” as can be found. 

He believes that anyone who attempted this would have to ride until their hair turned white and still they would not come upon a woman “true, and fair.” It is interesting to consider how the speaker came to this conclusion. It is not clear why he believes this to be the case, but obviously, something in his past tuned his mind in this direction. He is having trouble finding love, or perhaps he doesn’t believe in love at all.  

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.

In the final nine lines of ‘Song: Go and catch a falling star’ the speaker states that if “thou find’st” a woman who is both of these things, true and fair, then he will go on a “pilgrimage” to find her. He would suffer if there was a chance he could find the perfect partner. He knows that this isn’t going to be the case though so he does not go. 

The speaker states that there is always the possibility that a woman who seems true and fair comes to him, but he thinks more than likely that “she / Will be / False” eventually. There might be a period of time before the realization comes to pass, but he knows that it eventually will. These lines are clearly problematic from a contemporary perspective. Donne does not explain what flaws these women have nor does he include women who are not to him beautiful. He, therefore, separates women into two categories, those who are beautiful and faithless and those who are ugly and not worth considering.