John Donne. 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 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.

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The Ceylon Press publishes a range of podcasts including The History Of Sri Lanka; the off-grid Jungle Diaries podcast; Island Stories, the podcast that explores what makes Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan; the Wild Isle Podcast: Stories from Sri Lanka’s Nature; as well as Poetry from The Jungle.  All these, along with eBooks, dictionaries, guides and companions can be found at www.theceylonpress.com, based at The Flame Tree Estate & Hotel in the jungle northwest of Kandy: www.flametreeestate.com.  

The copyright of this podcast recording is David Swarbrick @The Ceylon Press 2025. 

POETRY FROM THE JUNGLE GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE COPYRIGHT CREDIT: 
John Donne's poem "Song: Go And Catch A Falling Star" is in the public domain because it was published before January 1, 1930. Therefore, it is not subject to modern copyright. The poem was published in the posthumous collection Poems of John Donne in 1633.