by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894)
Give to me the life I love
Language: English
Give to me the life I love, Let the lave go by me, Give the jolly heaven above And the byway nigh me. Bed in the bush with stars to see, Bread I dip in the river - There's the life for a man like me, There's the life for ever. Let the blow fall soon or late, Let what will be o'er me; Give the face of earth around And the road before me. Wealth I seek not, hope nor love, Nor a friend to know me; All I seek, the heaven above And the road below me. Or let autumn fall on me Where afield I linger, Silencing the bird on tree, Biting the blue finger. White as meal the frosty field - Warm the fireside haven - Not to autumn will I yield, Not to winter even! Let the blow fall soon or late, Let what will be o'er me; Give the face of earth around, And the road before me. Wealth I ask not, hope nor love, Nor a friend to know me; All I ask, the heaven above And the road below me.
About the headline (FAQ)
View text with all available footnotesConfirmed with The Complete Poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson: A Child's Garden of Verses, e-artnow, 2015 (via Google Books).
Note: "lave" = "that which is left"Text Authorship:
- by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894), "The vagabond", subtitle: "To an air of Schubert", appears in Songs of Travel and other verses, no. 1, first published 1896 [author's text checked 1 time 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 Donald A. Byars , "The vagabond", 1948 [ baritone and piano ], from Songs of Travel [sung text not yet checked]
- by Noble Cain (1896 - 1977), "The vagabond", published 1932 [ voice and piano ], in the collection Music of Many Lands and Peoples [sung text not yet checked]
- by (Henry) Walford Davies, Sir (1869 - 1941), "The vagabond", published 1931 [ voice and piano ], from Twenty-one songs, no. 21 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Thomas Frederick Dunhill (1877 - 1946), "The vagabond", published 1920 [ unison chorus or voice and piano ], in The Year Book Press Series of Unison and Part Songs, no. 170, London: Ascherberg, Hopwood & Crew Ltd. [sung text checked 1 time]
- by John Herbert Foulds (1880 - 1939), "The vagabond", op. 1 (Two songs) no. 2 (c1899) [ baritone and piano ], missing [sung text not yet checked]
- by Martin Kalmanoff (1920 - 2007), "Give me the life I loved", published 1958 [ TTBB chorus or solo voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Jessie L. Pease , "The vagabond", published 1907 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by (Gerald) Graham Peel (1878 - 1937), "The vagabond" [sung text not yet checked]
- by Georgina Elsie Smith , "The vagabond", 1953, from Songs of Travel, soprano or tenor and piano [sung text not yet checked]
- by Oley Speaks (1874 - 1948), "The vagabond", published 1922 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by William Armour Thayer (1874 - 1933), "The vagabond", <<1933 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), "The vagabond", 1904, published 1905, orchestrated 1905 [ voice and piano ], from Songs of Travel, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by John Barnes Wells (1880 - 1935), "The vagabond", <<1935 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Francis Brett Young (1884 - 1954), "The vagabond", <<1913 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Il vagabondo", copyright © 2005, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- LIT Lithuanian (Lietuvių kalba) (Giedrius Prunskus) , copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 32
Word count: 185