Funny where HP turns up!

[Geoff]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:

Geoff:
> <snip>
> > John Donne immediately makes me think of "no man is an island" and "never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee".
> > 
> > But mandragora?
> > 
> > Can you, O wisest of Carols enlighten me please?
> > :-)

Carol:
> How can I resist such a lovely compliment, O most gentlemanly of Geoffs? It's not mandragora per se but mandrake (its other name) that I associate with Donne:
> 
> 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 . . . .
> 
> The whole "Song," as you may recall, is about the supposed impossibility of finding a woman who's both beautiful and faithful to her lover.
> 
> Carol, who likes Donne despite his (apparent) misogyny

Geoff:
I obviously haven't delved determinedly and deeply enough into 
the depths of Donne.
:-)

I have to admit my age and say that I associate "catch a falling star"
with one of the singers of past times - Perry Como? or possibly 
Andy Williams?

!Yahoo tried to stop me being gentlemanly. After refusing to accept 
my first reply, my second go took about 36 hours to get posted on 
the group.
:-(