Go And Catach A Falling Star

John 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,
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.

Next 10 Poems

• John Donne : Good-morrow, The
• John Donne : Holy Sonnet ?
• John Donne : Holy Sonnet I: Tho Has Made Me
• John Donne : Holy Sonnet Ii: As Due By Many Titles I Resign
• John Donne : Holy Sonnet Iii: O Might Those Sighs And Tears Return Again
• John Donne : Holy Sonnet Iv: Oh My Black Soul! Now Art Thou Summoned
• John Donne : Holy Sonnet Ix: If Poisonous Minerals, And If That Tree
• John Donne : Holy Sonnet V: I Am A Little World Made Cunningly
• John Donne : Holy Sonnet Vi: This Is My Play's Last Scene, Here Heavens Appoint
• John Donne : Holy Sonnet Vii: At The Round Earth's Imagined Corners Blow

Previous 10 Poems

• John Donne : Funeral, The
• John Donne : For Whom The Bell Tolls
• John Donne : Elegy Xviii: Love's Progress
• John Donne : Elegy Xvi: On His Mistress
• John Donne : Elegy X: The Dream
• John Donne : Elegy Viii: The Comparison
• John Donne : Elegy Vii
• John Donne : Elegy Vi
• John Donne : Elegy V: His Picture
• John Donne : Elegy Ix: The Autumnal