The document outlines the life and works of poet John Donne, focusing particularly on his poem 'Song: Go and Catch a Falling Star.' It discusses the poem's themes of romantic infidelity and the impossibility of finding a faithful woman while utilizing various literary devices. The tone of the poem is light and humorous, emphasizing a critical perspective on gender and human nature.

1. SONG
BY JOHN DONNE

2. Outline
BACKGROUND
SPEAKER AND
SUMMARY
CRITICAL
APPRECIATION
THEMES STRUCTURE TONE LITERARY
DEVICES

3. ABOUT THE POET
• John Donne was born on 22nd January,
1572.
• Died on 31st March 1631.
• He was an English scholar, poet, soldier,
and secretary.
• He became a cleric in the church of
England.
• Representatives of metaphysical poets.
• His works includes sonnets, love poems ,
religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams,
elegies, songs and satires.

4. SOME
IMPORTANT
POEMS
Some important poems of John Donne are:
1. The flea
2. The good-morrow
3. death=-be not proud
4. The canonization
5. A Valediction: forbidding mourning
6. The sun rising
7. Song: Go and catch a falling star
8. The ecstasy

5. BACKGROUND
• This was first printed in 1633
after the death of john Donne.
• It is one of the most famous poem
of John Donne.
• It is one of the John Donne’s most
cynical poem.
• It is commonly referred to by its
first line- ‘ Go and catch a falling
star’ which introduces the poet’s
discussion on the impossibility of
finding an honest woman.

6. SONG: GO AND CATCH A FALLING STAR

7. SPEAKER OF THE POEM
◦The speaker of the poem can
be the poet himself or a
character of the poem.
◦There are two characters in
the poem.
◦SPEAKER
◦LISTENER

8. 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,
Teach me to hear mermaids
singing,
Or to keep off envy's stinging,
And find
What wind
Serves to advance an honest
mind.
• 7 Impossible
tasks
• “Mandrake
root”
look bizarrely like
a human body
• Cleft
split, divided, or
partially divided
into two
FIRST STANZA
• Mermaids
aquatic creature
with the head and
upper body of a
female human
and the tail of a
fish
 MYTH

9. 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.
• The speaker is
asking the
reader to
travel
• He asserts that the
reader or listener
will not find a loyal
and beautiful
woman.
• Ten thousand days
and night = 27 years
SECOND STANZA
• Snow white
hair
old age

10. 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.
• The speaker says that if you find
one then let me know because
such a journey to
see her will be like a pilgrimage
for the poet
• But he would not go there to
see her Because he is sure that
there is no woman who is both
beautiful and loyal.
• She might be beautiful and
faithful when you met her
• But by the time the listener write
the letter to the speaker, she
would have betrayed him before
the speaker reach there
THIRD STANZA

11. “SONG”
Summary
• In the first stanza the speaker
addresses an unknown listener.
He challenges the listener (auditor)
to do impossible things.
• In the second stanza, He tells his
listener that no matter what you've
seen and where you've travelled,
you have never seen a woman
who is beautiful (fair) and loyal
(true).

12. “SONG”
Summary
• In the last stanza, the speaker
asks his listener to inform him if
he ever finds such a woman.
• But the speaker retreats that
even if his listener is ever to
meet a loyal and beautiful
woman, by the time his listener
sends him word of this
discovery, the woman will have
betrayed to at least two or three
men.

13. CRITICAL
APPRECIATION
◦ The poem by John Donne is titled
"Song", but it is often listed by its
first line: "Goe and catch a falling
starre."
◦ This 27-line poem is deceptively
light, upon first reading just like so
much of Donne’s other poetry. On
the surface, it suggests attitudes
about love and the relations
between the sexes.

14. CRITICAL
APPRECIATION
◦ The “falling star” in John Donne’s
“Go And Catch A Falling Star”
signifies women, especially
women of the virtuous and fair
kind.
◦ Although the poet mentions the
falling star as a hope he also
states the sheer impossibility of
finding the perfect woman.

15. CRITICAL
APPRECIATION
◦ He uses juxtapositions which
lead into the desire to find out
how to separate fantasy from
reality, that is, how to “advance
an honest mind” and find a
woman who is “both true and
faire.”
◦ The poem is not just about
misogyny but suggests a
gender-neutral criticism of fallen
humanity.

16. THEMES
● The theme of
Women’s romantic
infidelity is
highlighted in this
poem.
● According to
Donne it is
impossible to find
a women who is
honest and
faithful.

17. TONE
• Throughout the poem
Donne employees a light
and sometimes
humorous tone.
• He speaks as though this
is just how things are, and
one must make the best of
a constantly bad situation.

18. STRUCTURE
• It is a three stanza poem that is
separated into sets of nine lines.
• The rhyme scheme of the poem
is:
ABABCCDDD
• The meter and rhythm of the
poem is closest to tetrameter
• But it also uses other metrical
feets as well.

19. LITERARY ELEMENTS
PERSONIFICATION
HYPERBOLE
DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE

20. PERSONIFICATION
It Is giving a human
attributes to a non
human thing

21. MANDRAKE PLANT
• A plant with purple
flowers , yellow fruits
and forked roots .
• So poet personified
with women's quality
of getting pregnant.

22. HYPERBOLE
And last, till you write your letter,
Yet she
Will be
False, ere I come, to two, or three.
HERE poet exaggerates that she
might be loyal to the speaker when
he met her but when he will right the
letter to the speaker, she will have
betrayed two-three men.

23. DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE
• This love poem is a
dramatic monologue
• the speaker
addresses an
unknown listener.

24. THANK YOU!