[384] Song
Guest poem submitted by Anustup Datta <Anustup.Datta@>:
Go and catch a falling star,
Get with child a mandrake root,
Tell me where all past years are,
Or who cleft the devils 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.
-- John Donne
|
Here is Donne at his bitterest - the disappointed lover reviles
womankind and bemoans his own fortune as well. But like all of Donne's
poetry, it is simply beautiful : read aloud the wonderful first stanza
and you would know why Tagore rated Donne the greatest lyric poet in the
English tongue.
Anustup.
PS. I have always felt that Donne's use of difficult argument, complex
metaphor and allegory was a device to control and discipline his wildly
romantic heart - he treads over-carefully like a drunk who does not
trust his own tottering footsteps.
From: John Allnutt <john47@>
this poem is not john donne's "song". im not familiar with this poem,
but "song" begins with "sweetest love, i do not go / for weariness of
thee,...."
From: John Allnutt <john47@>
this poem is not john donne's "song". im not familiar with this poem,
but "song" begins with "sweetest love, i do not go / for weariness of
thee,...."
From: Joan McMillan <ionadon@>
I love that poem, that outstanding woman and the truth she speaks! A"phenomenal woman" and then some!
Iona McMillan
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A"phenomenal woman" and then some!</DIV>
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--Boundary_(ID_8Tf/NEvyCGgcM+K+ESHYIw)--
From: Hcrltn@
I don't know if this message will actually get to John Allnutt
concerning the title "Song," but this poem IS entitled such. The
"Sweetest love, I do not go..." is also titled "Song." There are two
"Song(s)." Besides, Donne never titled his poems. Editors did.
--Heather
From: anne-marie gaudefroy <anne-marie.gaudefroy@>
Hi! I am French and my name is Aur?lie;could you give me some help with john Donne's song"sweetest love I do not go"? thanks beforehand!