Goe and catch!

Goe, and catch a falling starre – John Donne

Goe, and catch a falling starre,
Get with child a mandrake’s root,
Tell me, where all past years are,
Or who cleft the Divel’s foot,
Teach me to heare
Mermaids singing
Or to keep envies stinging,
And finde
What winde
Serves to’advance an honest mind.

© Stuart Moffatt 1971

If thou beest borne to strange sights,
Things invisible to see,
Ride ten thousand daies and nights,
Till age snow white haires on thee,
Thou, when thou retorn’st, wilt tell mee
All strange wonders, that befell thee,
And sweare
No where
Lives a woman true and fair.

If thou findst one, let mee know;
Such a pilgrimage were sweet;
Yet doe not, I would not goe,
Though at next door we might meet,
Though shee were true, when you met her,
And last, till you write your letter,
Yet shee
Will bee
False, ere I come, to – two or three.

ChoralWiki and NoteWorthy Scriptorium

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