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

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... ...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, â€Å"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.