Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
John Donne. 1573–1631196. Song
| 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, | 5 |
| 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, | 10 |
| 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, | 15 |
| And swear | |
| No where | |
| Lives a woman true and fair. | |
| 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, to two or three. |