Poem

I haven't done a "Poem of the Month" post for such a long time!  I thought I would share, just for fun, a poem that I'm working on memorizing and analyzing in the course of my Poetry and Poetics class this semester.  The poet, John Donne, is one of my favorites; if you don't know it, look up his sonnet "Batter My Heart".  Here's an unnamed poem; it's a rather bitter piece, but stunningly well-written.

Go and catch a falling star,

Get with child a mandrake root,

Tell me where all past years are,

And 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.

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

Nowhere

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, till I come, to two or three.