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.
~From John Donne's "Song" written in 1633
Some days are like that. Full of impossibility. Falling stars will not be caught. Children, with a mandrake root, will not be got. (How's that for passive voice?) The rest of the poem is dripping with sarcasm, and reading it again as an adult, I find Donne much more irritating than I did as a teenager when I first read this poem. Here's the rest of it. Really? I always imagined the women of the 17th century to be full of decorum and virtue. Makes me wonder what kind of company John Donne kept.
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.
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.
Posts
Oh, mandrake roots are real? I always thought JK Rowling invented the term.
ReplyDeleteOh yes. All sorts of supposed mystical powers.
ReplyDeleteIn researching mandrake root, I learned that it grows in parts of the Mediterranean and the island of Corsica. I'm actually going to be in Corsica (of all places) in about a month (family cruise vacation). I think I'll try to find some mandrake root. Although I sure don't need any more children at the moment!
ReplyDelete