| John Donne (1572–1631). The Poems of John Donne. 1896. | | | | Songs and Sonnets | | Song: Go and catch a falling star |
| | | GO and catch a falling star, | |
| Get with child a mandrake root, | |
| Tell me where all past years 1 are, | |
| Or who cleft the devil’s foot, | |
| Teach me to hear mermaids singing, | 5 |
| Or to keep off envy’s stinging, | |
| And find | |
| What wind | |
| Serves to advance an honest mind. | |
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| If thou be’st born to strange sights, | 10 |
| Things invisible to see, 2 | |
| Ride ten thousand days and nights, | |
| Till age snow white hairs on thee, | |
| Thou, when thou return’st, wilt tell me, | |
| All strange wonders that befell thee, | 15 |
| And swear, | |
| No where | |
| Lives a woman true and fair. | |
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| If thou find’st one, let me know; | |
| Such a pilgrimage were sweet. | 20 |
| Yet do not, I would not go, | |
| Though at next door we might meet. | |
| Though she were true when you met her, | |
| And last till you write your letter, | |
| Yet she | 25 |
| Will be | |
| False, ere I come, 3 to two or three. | |
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