Go and catch a falling star | Go and catch a falling star

by John Donne (1572 - 1631)

Go and catch a falling star

Language: English

Our translations: ITA

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.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

by John Donne (1572 - 1631), "Go and catch a falling star" [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist , "Go and catch a falling star", published 1961 [sung text not yet checked]
by Colin Brumby (b. 1933), "Go and catch a falling star", published 1979, from The English Songs [sung text not yet checked]
by David Vassall Cox (1916 - 1997), "Go and catch a falling star", 1959, published 1962 [ tenor and piano ], from The Humours of Love [sung text not yet checked]
by William Flanagan (1923 - 1969), "Go and catch a falling star", published 1949 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Philippe Hersant (b. 1948), "Falling star", 2005 [ vocal octet and viola da gamba ], Éditions Durand ; Hersant's catalog of works indicates the text of this setting is also based on a poem by Henry King [sung text not yet checked]
by Lee Hoiby (1926 - 2011), "Go and catch a falling star" [ tenor and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Ronald Perera (b. 1941), "Go, and catch a falling star", 1961 [ medium voice and piano ], from Two Donne Songs, no. 1, Pear Tree Press Music Publishers distributed by Subito Music Corp. [sung text not yet checked]
by Bernard George Stevens (1916 - 1983), "Go and catch a falling star", published 1948, from Three Songs: The Words by John Donne [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2005-12-07
Line count: 27
Word count: 147