Song - What views about women are expressed in this poem?

Song - What views about women are expressed in this poem?

John Donne: Song

A) What views about women are expressed in this poem?

John Donne’s poems all express very different views about women. This

poem expresses a very negative view of women, in particular that

nowhere ‘lives a woman true, and fair’ – a beautiful, virtuous woman

is impossible to find, and even if you did, by the time that Donne had

reached her, she would have adulterated two, or maybe three other

men. He believes in the certainty of female immoralism ‘yet she /

will be / false.’ And the almost random promiscuity too, it will be

two, or maybe three men, it’s very casual.

He compares women to the sirens of the sea – mermaids, in the way the

seduce you, and pull you down to the depths, suffocating you. While

they are not an object of sexual desire but deception, because below

the waist they have they have a slimy, scaly fishy tale. He may view

himself as sort of Odysseus figure, just trying to find his image of

his perfect woman on some mythical Ithaca. He continues these themes

of deception further in the poem, which I shall explore in the next

question

B) How do language and verse form contribute to meaning in this poem

In the first stanza Donne uses very commanding language, four lines

out of nine begin with an imperative, and this shows his commanding,

intellectual persona and his attitude towards women. In the first

stanza Donne presents us fantastical images of various impossibilities

which contribute meaning to his opinion of woman.

The first sentence is a command: "Goe and catch a falling star," and

an impossible one, for how can one catch a star? The word "falling"

suggests a gradual fading away of the virtuosity of...

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...tions take.’ One drop in a pond will cause rippling

outwards – it continues to grow. He compares the circles to spheres of

the heavens, but he says ‘they are all concentrique unto thee.’ This

is a great metaphor for defining love, he feels that his lover is the

centre on the heavens and outshines everything, the years passing to

nothing bar ‘adde to love new heate.’

His love may increase through springtime but never abates through bad

times, “No winter shall abate the springs encrease.’ Donne suggests

that it cannot abate, he compares his growing love as too the

infiniteness of the sky and the stars, which would have been never

anything less than infinite in those times. Here we can see Donne as a

simplistic adolescent, when he is in love he can never see it ending,

while when he is feeling bad all women are evil and he will never go

out with one again.