SONG: GO A

ND CATCH A
FALLING ST
AR  
A POEM BY JOHN DONNE
The title which is also the
first line, “Go, and Catch a
Falling Star”, has an
imperative construction.
An imperative construction
involves the speaker and
second person, you, in the
action ordained.
 The rhyme
scheme of the
poem sticks to:
ababccddd. 
The poem Imagine yourself trying to
touch it for once!
THEME
Donne talks about a speaker’s belief
that there are no women in the
world who are to him both beautiful
and faithful. He compares the
impossibility of something like
catching a star to finding an honest
and beautiful woman. 
After the analysis of material things, Donne, in
“Go and catch a falling star” talks about
inconsistent attitude of women. Theme of the
poem, thus, is the inconstancy of women. This
poem is highly ironic and simultaneously
symbolic. A woman should not deceive a man. If
she wants to do so, she should think thousand
times before it. Even then, if she decides to
b e t r a y, s h e s h o u l d v e r i f y t h a t h e r l o v e r i s n o t a
poet. Otherwise, a poet will make her famous in
his poetry as John Donne has done!
It seems that someone has betrayed John Donne;
t h e re f o re , he d o e s n ot co n s i d e r ma n y i mp o ss i b l e
tasks impossible but the task of finding a
beautiful but loyal woman. He concludes the poem
with the theme of unfaithfulness of women.
Go and catch a falling star, In the first stanza of this dramatic monologue
Get with child a mandrake (love poem), the speaker addresses an unknown
root,
listener. He challenges the listener (auditor) to
Tell me where all past years
are, do some impossible things: catch a falling star
Or who cleft the devil’s foot, or teach him to hear mermaids singing.
Teach me to hear mermaids The speaker changes the tone to signify the
singing, change from the challenge to find these
or to keep off envy’s impossible things to a challenge to find
stinging, something seemingly more possible: an "honest
And find mind." The term mind has been used to stand for
what wind person. His wish is to find an honest mind to
serves to advance an honest
avoid envious thoughts. 
mind.
• The expression a falling star invokes a more finely-grained conceptualization of the object which the speaker asks
the reader to grasp falling in the sky that hits the atmosphere and makes a series of light. It also creates an
image.

• We should also not forget the fact that mandrake root was believed to have magical power and can be used as a
narcotic drug like heroin. Another fact about the root of mandrake plant is that its shape looks like the shape of a
man or a woman. This is why in line 2 the speaker says, “make it pregnant.”

• “All past years” evokes a grossly-grained conceptualization of the past years.

• The concept Devil is specific in the sense that it represents a supernatural or non-physical being. So, the
expression Devil’s foot gives prominence to the concept of foot against the whole body of the Devil.

• This is how the speaker in this poem states that it is impossible to find a fair and an honest woman as it is
impossible to: catch a shooting star; impregnate a root of a mandrake; tell about the place of the past years and the
person who cleft the devil’s foot; enable the speaker to hear the mermaids’ songs and to cure the envy’s stinging or
discover the role of the wind in developing the mind of the intellectual people; and so on.
If thou be’st born to strange
sights, In the second stanza, it becomes clear
things invisible to see, that the speaker has felt envy because
Ride ten thousand days and
nights, he has been rejected by a woman, or
Till age snow white hairs on because he has a cynical attitude about
thee,
Thou, when thou return’st, wilt
women in general. He tells his listener
tell me, that no matter what you've seen and
All strange wonders that befell where you've travelled, you have never
thee,
And swear, seen a woman who is beautiful (fair)
no where and loyal (true). 
lives a woman true, and fair.
• The speaker commands the hearer to travel for 10,000 days and nights till his hair turns white
because of being advanced in age. The duration of the journey the poet is asking the reader or
the addressee to take is very specific: 27 years and about 40 days.
• The expression no where is very simplified and symbolic. If we interpret it as referring to the
places, the addressee has taken during his 27-year journey seeking to find a fair and true woman
for the speaker!
• The elements “true and fair” give specificity to the noun woman, thus, it becomes specific.
• An example of metaphor is found when the speaker compares the image of getting aged and
having white hairs on head to the image of man who is standing in the snow and his head is
covered with snow.
If thou find’st one, let me know, In the last stanza, the speaker asks his
such a pilgrimage were sweet;
yet do not, I would not go, listener to inform him if he ever finds
though at next door we might such a woman. However, the speaker
meet;
though she were true, when you retreats to his cynical outlook that even
met her, if his listener is ever to meet a loyal
and last, till you write your and beautiful woman, by the time his
letter,
yet she listener sends him word of this
will be discovery, the woman will have
false, ere I come, to two, or
three . betrayed to at least two or three men. 
• The search for a beautiful and true woman has become a journey metaphor.

• In this case, the pilgrimage is the background for understanding the holiness of
traveling for the sake of finding a lovely and trustworthy woman.

• An example of specificity is found in the concept of pilgrimage here, the speaker uses a
verb “ride” to refer to the action of sitting and traveling on the back of an animal like
horse, of course, for Donne’s time. The verb ride does not specify the purpose of the
journey, we have a very specific name for the journey in the search of finding a true and
fair woman. Here, the speaker interprets the journey as a pilgrimage for the purpose of
visiting a holy place.
 The final stanza is summarised as follows:
‘If you do manage to find a woman who is both faithful and beautiful, let me know – a journey to
find such a woman would be worth it. But having said that, even if she were next door and you
wrote to tell me to come and see her, before I’d managed to make the journey to meet her, she
would have been unfaithful to several men.’
 FOOD FOR THOUGHT
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 prospective. 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. 
Th e s o n g ( p o e m ) i s a c tu a l ly o n f e m in in e in c o n s t an c y. I t s t h e m e is th e la c k o f f id e lit y
o f w om en . A c c o r d in g to t h e s p e a k e r, n o w om a n , w h o i s b o th tr u e a n d f a i r, c a n b e
tr ac e d a n yw h e r e .  T h e s p e a k e r e v e n c la i m s t h a t c o n s t a n cy ( f a it h f u ln e s s , l oy a l ty ) in
w o m e n i s n o t o n ly r a r e , b u t a ls o s h o r t- l a s ti n g.
STATE YOUR OPINIONS REGARDING
THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

• What makes a woman remain faithful towards her

beloved?
• Who is more loyal in a relationship? Men or Women?
• Why do some men cheat on beautiful women?
• Do you think a beautiful woman cannot remain faithful
in a relationship?