Go And Catch A Falling Star Analysis

John Donne’s Song, one of the many pieces of poetry he wrote around 1600, is also known by its first line: Go and catch a falling star. The exact date of this poem is unknown but it is part of his Songs and Sonnets. As the name implies, it is a song yet the cynical nature of this poem betrays the lightheartedness of the name. A further look into this poem, though, will soon reveal that there are more than just cynical thoughts that motivated Donne to write it. The idea of women in Go and Catch a Falling Star as untruthful and untrustworthy is not what it seems.
John Donne was born in 1572 and lived through the early part of the 17th century, during the time of sea exploration and Queen Elizabeth and her successor James’ reigns. He has a particular …show more content…
Cynical and somewhat depressing, this poem also shows a creative and humorous side. Go and Catch a Falling Star starts off with the first stanza describing a list of various tasks that one is asked to try. The common denominator between all these tasks such as “Go and catch a falling star” and “Teach me to hear mermaids singing” is that they are virtually impossible to accomplish. The poem is broken into three stanzas. The first stanza, as mentioned, serves only as a long introduction to the actual topic. The second stanza starts with “If thou be’st born to strange sights,” continuing the imaginary and mythological sense of the beginning stanza. This second stanza talks of a journey of “ten thousand days and nights” and with it “all the strange wonders that befell thee”, yet it is at the end of this stanza that one sees the reason for the impossible tasks. Even if one were to journey for years until old age and return to tell many stories, one would still “swear, no where/ lives a woman true, and fair.” The use of “swear” shows the inflexibility of this fact. There are no women who are both beautiful and faithful in this