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John Donne : Song 

Goe, and catche a falling starre,
	Get with child a mandrake roote1,
Tell me where all past yeares are,
	Or who cleft the Divels foot,
Teach me to heare Mermaides singing,
	Or to keep off envies stinging,
		And finde
		What winde
Serves to advance an honest minde.

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 faire.

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



John Donne (1572-1631)	P. 1633
 
FOOTNOTES
1 poisonous plant whose particularity is that the root roughly resembles the human form and was thought to shriek when plucked; was thought to be an aphrodisiac
 

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