John Donne
John Donne is regarded as the forerunner of Metaphysical poets. His poems, whether cynical or idealistic, are characterized by fantastic conceits, metaphors and hyperbole. Donne's images are usually untraditional. In his poems about love he does not employ those images which are usually associated with love such as roses, beauties, moon and the like. In the first stanza of the poem Song, Donne mentions falling star, mandrake root, Devil's foo
In reading the poem, readers go through the emotional change from shock to puzzle to gradual understanding and finally the complete recognition and appreciation. First coming across such images, readers may be shocked and wonder in what way those exaggerated images are related to the theme. Although he is too biased against love, the conceits and metaphors Donne employs are novel and fantastic. By making comparisons between finding a true and fair woman and catching a falling star, getting child with a mandrake root, hearing mermaids singing and so on, Donne satirizes bitterly that there is no true and fair woman in the world. There are seven impossibilities in the first stanza:Go and catch a falling star, 1st impossibility Get with child a mandrake root, 2nd impossibilityTell me where all past years are, 3rd impossibility Or who cleft the Devil's foot, 4th impossibilityTeach me to hear mermaids singing, 5th impossibilityOr to keep off envy's stinging, 6th impossibility And find What windServes to advance an honest mind. That is exact the effect Donne wants to bring about through his conceits. These lines shed light on the theme of the poem. 7th impossibility Later, the last two lines of the second stanza gives the 8th impossibility: No whereLives a woman true, and fair. As the poem goes on, readers begin to understand that Donne is listing several impossibilities.
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