Explanation:
"Make me a mandrake, so I may groan here,
Or a stone fountaine weeping out my year."
Answer: These lines have been taken from 'Twicknam Garden', a famous love-lyric of John Donne, the leader of the Metaphysical school of poetry. The poet here appeals to the god of love to transform him either into a mandrake or a stone fountain, because he does not find any meaning of life in his present state of frustration.
Being inspired by passion for his beloved, the poet has come to Twicknam Garden in order that the beautiful sights and sounds around him might soothe his troubled mind caused by his frustration in love. But nature fails to console him in his distress because the fault lies with himself. His love is one-sided and, therefore, he is a self traitor lover and he is always stung by his own jealousy. His sufferings are thus created by himself. The poet feels that the trees in the garden seem to be mocking his grief. In a bitter cynical mood, the poet says that it would be far better for him, if winter were to come suddenly and destroy the beauty of the garden, or if the frost were to kill the flowers which seem to mock at his grief. The poet does not want to suffer the insult and the mockery of the trees, nor does he want to go away from the garden. Therefore, he prays to the god of love to transform him into some senseless object of nature. Let him be a mandrake, a tree half human and half plant, so that he may continue to stay there and groan like the mandrake. Or let him be transformed into a stone fountain, so that he may pass the rest of his life in weeping there.
Mandrake was a fabulous tree-half human and half plant. It was supposed to groan like a human being when some injury was inflicted on it. It had a thick fleshy root and large, oblong leaves. The forking of the root often produces its resemblance to the human figure. On being up rooted, the plant produces a screaming sound.
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