SONG

                                                                JOHN DONNE 1573-1631

 

 

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;

Teach me to hear mermaids singing,

Or to keep off envy's stinging,

And find

What wind

Serves to advance an honest mind.

 

If thou be'st born to strange sights,              

Things invisible to see,

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,

              And swear

              No where

Lives a woman true and fair.

 

If thou find'st one, let me know;

              Such a pilgrimage were sweet.

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

              Will be

False, ere I come, to two or three.