by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939)
Never Give All the Heart
Language: English
Never give all the heart, for love Will hardly seem worth thinking of To passionate women if it seem Certain, and they never dream That it fades out from kiss to kiss; For everything that’s lovely is But a brief, dreamy, kind delight. O never give the heart outright, For they, for all smooth lips can say, Have given their hearts up to the play. And who could play it well enough If deaf and dumb and blind with love? He that made this knows all the cost, For he gave all his heart and lost.
Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "Never give all the heart" [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 Marian Ingoldsby (b. 1965), "Never Give All the Heart", first performed 2015. [voice and piano] [ sung text not verified ]
Researcher for this page: Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2017-11-22
Line count: 14
Word count: 96