“Song: Go and catch a falling star” Introduction

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“Song: Go and catch a falling star” Summary

“Song: Go and catch a falling star” Themes

• 

  Women's Infidelity

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Song: Go and catch a falling star”

• Lines 1-4

  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,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-6

  Teach me to hear mermaids singing,
  Or to keep off envy's stinging,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 7-9

              And find
              What wind
  Serves to advance an honest mind.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 10-13

  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,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 14-18

  Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me,
  All strange wonders that befell thee,
              And swear,
              No where
  Lives a woman true, and fair.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 19-20

  If thou find'st one, let me know,
      Such a pilgrimage were sweet;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 21-22

  Yet do not, I would not go,
      Though at next door we might meet;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 23-27

  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.

  

  

  

  

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“Song: Go and catch a falling star” Symbols

• 

  The Falling Star

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• 

  Mandrake Root

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• 

  The Devil's Foot

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• 

  Mermaids

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“Song: Go and catch a falling star” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Apostrophe

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Sibilance

  

  

  

  

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• Allusion

  

  

  

  

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• Hyperbole

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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• Irony

  

  

  

  

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“Song: Go and catch a falling star” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Mandrake
• Cleft
• Mermaids
• Envy
• Advance
• Thou
• Be'st
• Thee
• Wilt
• Befell
• True, and fair
• Find'st
• False
• Ere

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Song: Go and catch a falling star”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Song: Go and catch a falling star” Speaker

“Song: Go and catch a falling star” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Song: Go and catch a falling star”

More “Song: Go and catch a falling star” Resources

• External Resources

  • Donne's Life and Work — A short biography and links to more of Donne's work from the Poetry Foundation.

  • Richard Burton Reads the Poem — The famous actor gives a dramatic reading. (Notice his pronunciation of "wind"!)

  • Donne's Grave — The story of John Donne's burial in St. Paul's Cathedral, where he was the Dean.

  • Close Readings From the British Library — A biography and an in-depth look at a few of of Donne's poems.

  • Digital Donne — A comprehensive scholarly guide to John Donne's manuscripts.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by John Donne

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  • A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

  • A Valediction: Of Weeping

  • Elegy V: His Picture

  • Holy Sonnet 10: Death, be not proud

  • Holy Sonnet 14: Batter my heart, three-person'd God

  • Holy Sonnet 1: Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?

  • Holy Sonnet 6: This is my play's last scene

  • Holy Sonnet 7: At the round earth's imagined corners

  • Hymn to God My God, in My Sickness

  • No Man Is an Island

  • The Apparition

  • The Canonization

  • The Dream

  • The Ecstasy

  • The Flea

  • The Good-Morrow

  • The Relic

  • The Sun Rising

  • The Triple Fool

  • To His Mistress Going to Bed