Sleep, baby, sleep! Thy father's watching the sheep, Thy mother's shaking the dreamland tree, And down drops a little dream for thee. Sleep, baby, sleep. Sleep, baby, sleep! The large stars are the sheep, The little stars are lambs, I guess, The bright moon is the shepherdess. Sleep, baby, sleep! Sleep, baby, sleep! The Saviour loves his sheep; He is the Lamb of God on high, Who for our sakes came down to die. Sleep, baby, sleep! Sleep, baby, sleep! Away, to tend the sheep, Away, thou sheepdog, fierce and wild, And do not harm my sleeping child! Sleep, baby, sleep! Sleep!
Eleven songs for voice and piano , opus 26
by Arthur Foote (1853 - 1937)
1. Sleep, baby, sleep  [sung text checked 1 time]
Authorship:
- by Elizabeth Prentiss [an adaptation]
Based on:
- a text in German (Deutsch) from Volkslieder (Folksongs) , "Morgenlied von den Schäfchen", appears in Des Knaben Wunderhorn
See other settings of this text.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]2. Love me if I live  [sung text checked 1 time]
Love me if I live! Love me if I die! What to me is life or death, So that thou be nigh? Once I loved thee rich, Now I love thee poor; Ah! what is there I could not For thy sake endure? Kiss me for my love! Pay me for my pain! Come! and murmur in my ear How thou lov'st again!
Authorship:
- by Bryan Waller Procter (1787 - 1874), as Barry Cornwall, "Love me if I live"
Go to the single-text view
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]3. The night has a thousand eyes  [sung text checked 1 time]
The night has a thousand eyes, And the day but one; Yet the light of the [world]1 dies With the dying sun. The mind has a thousand eyes, And the heart but one; Yet the light of a whole life dies When love is done.
Authorship:
- by Francis William Bourdillon (1852 - 1921), "Light", appears in Among the Flowers, first published 1878
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Walter A. Aue) , "Viel tausend Augen hat die Nacht", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Confirmed with Francis William Bourdillon, Among the Flowers, London: Marcus Ward & Co., 1878, page 101.
1 Foote, Venables: "bright world"Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Melanie Trumbull
4. The Eden Rose  [sung text checked 1 time]
Fair Eve knelt close to the guarded gate in the hush of an Eastern spring, She saw the flash of the Angel's sword, the gleam of the Angel's wing. And because she was so beautiful, and because she could not see How fair were the pure white cyclamens crushed dying at her knee He plucked a Rose from the Eden Tree where the four great rivers met, [A rose still breathing of Paradise, wih never a thorn of regret;]1 And though for many a Cycle past that Rose in the dust hath lain With her who bore it upon her breast when she passed from grief and pain, There was never a daughter of Eve but once, ere the tale of her years be done, Shall know the scent of the Eden Rose but once beneath the sun ! Though the years may bring her joy or pain, fame, sorrow or sacrifice, The hour that brought her the scent of the Rose, she lived it in Paradise.
Authorship:
- by Rudyard Kipling (1865 - 1936), "The Eden Rose", appears in From Day to Day with Kipling, first published 1911
Go to the single-text view
View original text (without footnotes)1 Foote: "And sheltered her bosom's thorny pain, 'neath its petals dewy wet."
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
5. Summer longings  [sung text checked 1 time]
Ah! my heart is weary waiting,
Waiting for the May --
Waiting for the pleasant rambles,
Where the fragrant hawthorn brambles,
With the woodbine alternating,
Scent the dewy way.
Ah! my heart is weary waiting,
Waiting for the May.
Waiting sad, dejected, weary,
Waiting for the May.
Spring goes by with wasted warnings,
Moonlit evenings, sunbright mornings;
Summer comes, yet dark and dreary
Life still ebbs away;
Man is ever weary weary,
Waiting for the May!
Ah! my heart is sore with sighing,
Sighing for the May --
Sighing for their sure returning,
When the summer beams are burning,
Hopes and flowers that dead or dying
All the winter lay.
Ah! my heart is sore with sighing,
Sighing for the May.
[ ... ]
Authorship:
- by Denis Florence MacCarthy (1817 - 1882), "Summer longings"
See other settings of this text.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]6. To blossoms  [sung text checked 1 time]
Fair pledges of a fruitful tree, Why do ye fall so fast? Your date is not so past But you may stay [yet here]1 awhile To blush and gently smile, And go at last. What! were ye born to be An hour or half's delight, And so to bid good night? 'Twas pity Nature brought [you]2 forth Merely to show your worth And lose you quite. But you are lovely leaves, where we May read how soon things have Their end, though ne'er so brave: And after they have shown their pride Like you awhile, they glide Into the grave.
Authorship:
- by Robert Herrick (1591 - 1674), "To blossoms"
See other settings of this text.
View original text (without footnotes)1 Foote: "here yet"
2 Foote, Willan: "ye"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
7. I arise from dreams of thee  [sung text checked 1 time]
I arise from dreams of thee In the first sweet sleep of night, When the winds are breathing low, And the stars are shining bright: I arise from dreams of thee, And a spirit in my feet [Has]1 led me - who knows how? To thy chamber window, Sweet! The wandering airs they faint On the dark, the silent stream - The Champak odours fail Like sweet thoughts in a dream; The nightingale's complaint, It dies upon her heart; - As I must die on thine, O belovèd as thou art! Oh lift me from the grass! I die! I faint! I fail! Let thy love in kisses rain On my lips and eyelids pale. My cheek is cold and white, alas! My heart beats loud and fast; - Oh! press it to thine own again, Where it will break at last.
Authorship:
- by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822), "Lines to an Indian Air"
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CHI Chinese (中文) (Dr Huaixing Wang) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "Řádky k indické melodii"
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Indische Serenade", copyright © 2004, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
1 Delius: "Hath"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
8. A ditty  [sung text checked 1 time]
My true love hath my heart and I have his.
By just exchange, one [for]1 the other given:
I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss;
There never was a [bargain better]2 driven[.]3
His heart in me keeps [me and him]4 in one;
My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides:
He loves my heart, for once it was his own;
I cherish his because in me it bides[.]3
[ ... ]
Authorship:
- by Philip Sidney, Sir (1554 - 1586), no title, appears in Arcadia
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Richard Flatter) , "Der Handel", appears in Die Fähre, Englische Lyrik aus fünf Jahrhunderten, first published 1936
Parodied in Archibald Stodart-Walker's My true friend hath my hat.
1 Foote: "to"2 Foote, Gounod, Rutter, Wilkinson: "better bargain"
3 Foote: ":/ My true love hath my heart and I have his." (first line is repeated)
4 Foote: "him and me"
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
9. In a bower  [sung text checked 1 time]
A maiden sits in her bower and sings, And your heart keeps time to the tune ; In the garden walks the red rose springs, The month is June. The month is June, and full are the days, Fair days, of the summer fed ; And softly the singer sings her lays : Her lips are red. A face she has that is pale as Sleep, And hair like the midnight skies When the wings of tempest across them sweep, And strange dark eyes. The song she sings is a siren's song, A tempting, dangerous rune, If you hark at all you will hear too long That fatal tune.
Authorship:
- by Louise Chandler Moulton (1835 - 1908), "In a bower", appears in The Garden of Dreams: Lyrics and Sonnets , first published 1890
See other settings of this text.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]10. The water‑lily  [sung text checked 1 time]
A silent water-lily From the dark lake doth rise ; Her tender snow-white blossom On the still water lies. The moon, from highest heaven, Pours down its golden light ; And all its rays are gathered Into that blossom bright. Around that snow-white flower A singing swan doth float ; It is his dying hour, It is his dying note. He pours his soul in music, His heart must break, ere long; O flower, -- snow-white flower ! Wilt thou not hear the song ?
Authorship:
- by Lilian Rebecca Clarke (1842 - 1921), as "L. C.", "The water-lily", appears in Exotics: Attempts To Domesticate Them
Based on:
- a text in German (Deutsch) by Emanuel von Geibel (1815 - 1884), no title, appears in Jugendgedichte, in 1. Erstes Buch, in Lieder als Intermezzo, no. 9
Go to the single-text view
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]11. How long, dear love?  [sung text checked 1 time]
If on my grave the summer grass were growing, Or heedless winter winds across it blowing, Through joyous June or desolate December, How long, Sweetheart, how long would you remember, How long, dear love, [how long]1? For brightest eyes would open to the summer, And sweetest smiles would greet the sweet newcomer, And on young lips grow kisses for the taking When all the summer buds to bloom are breaking,-- How long, dear love, [how long]2? Too gay, in June, you might be to regret me, And living lips might woo you to forget me; But, ah, Sweetheart, I think you would remember When winds were weary in your life's December, -- So long, dear love, so [long]3!
Authorship:
- by Louise Chandler Moulton (1835 - 1908), "How long?"
See other settings of this text.
View original text (without footnotes)1 omitted by Foote.
2 Foote: "how long, dear Love"
3 Foote: "long, dear Love will you remember,/ So long, dear Love!"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]