Context: This brief song, characteristic of Donne's early love poetry that was often written in a cynical vein, is developed by the description of a series of impossible acts. The reader is told to perform these feats; if he can do so, he may be able to find a woman who is "true and fair," that is, both faithful and beautiful. To see such a wonder would be worth a pilgrimage. Yet, the cynical poet avers, though this prodigy might live as close as next door, he is convinced that before he could cover that short distance, she would be "False, ere I come, to two, or three" other deceived admirers. The poem begins: