What does john donne mean…. mandrake root?
Monday, November 22nd, 2010 at
17:01
In John Donne’s "Song", one of the lines reads "get with child a mandrake root." Would someone mind clarifying this line for me? I know that it is a poisonous root, and that it is shaped like a human’s lower half. Could someone elaborate on this? Thanks
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Filed under: Mandrake
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To get a woman "with child" means to get her pregnant. Even though a mandrake root looks like a pair of human legs open wide and ready for sexual intercourse, it would be impossible to have sex with the plant and beget a child that way.
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,
All of those first four lines from Donne’s poem say, in effect, "Do the impossible. Do what no human being can actually do."
The poem as a whole is about how it is impossible to find a "true and fair" woman. The first stanza, including the line you mentioned, asks the reader to do things that Donne argues are just as impossible as finding the virtuous woman.
According to medieval superstition (which Donne is using here) the mandrake was a magical plant which was half root-vegetable and half human. (The mandrakes in Harry Potter are like this).
Donne is saying: ‘If you are so very clever, why don’t you make a mandrake pregnant?’
This is obviously a pretty tall order.