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Lyric Poem · Love

Song: Go and Catch a Falling Star

by John Donne · 1633

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.

Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.

Quick facts

Poem
Song: Go and Catch a Falling Star
Poet
John Donne
Published
1633
Length
27 lines
Form
Lyric Poem, Rhyming Poems
Themes
Love, Funny

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape
27 lines · 3 stanzas of 9 lines

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record
John Donne1572–1631
Source record
PoetryDBSong: Go and Catch a Falling Star by john-donne, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision
Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record
1633
Text fingerprint
SHA-256 78ec4d4934572b45
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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