Now winter nights enlarge
   The number of their hours,
And clouds their storms discharge
   Upon the airy towers;
Let now the chimneys blaze
   And cups o'erflow with wine,
Let well-tuned [words]1 amaze
   With harmony divine.
Now yellow waxen lights
   Shall wait on honey Love,
While youthful Revels, [Masques]2, and Courtly sights,
   Sleep's leaden spells remove.

This time doth well dispense
   With lover's long discourse;
Much speech hath some defense,
   Though beauty no remorse.
all do not all things well:
   Some measures comely tread,
Some knotted Riddles tell,
   Some Poems smoothly read,
The Summer hath his joys,
   And winter his delights;
Though Love and all his pleasures are but toys,
   They shorten tedious [nights]3.

About the headline (FAQ)

View text without footnotes
¹ Holmes: "works"
² Holmes: "Masks"
³ P. Moore: "night"

Text Authorship:

• by Thomas Campion (1567 - 1620) [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 Gerald Busby (b. 1935), "Winter nights" [ baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Thomas Campion (1567 - 1620), "Now winter nights enlarge", published 1617, from The Third and Fourth Booke of Ayres - The Third Booke, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Dirk Hol , "Now winter nights enlarge", 1988, from Four songs on poems by Thomas Campion, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Brian Holmes (b. 1946), "Now winter nights enlarge", from Six Ayres, no. 6 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Stephanie Martin (b. 1962), "Now Winter Nights Enlarge", 2011, copyright © 2019 [ tenor, satb chorus,, strings, keyboards and percussion ], from cantata Winter Nights, no. 5, Canadian Music Centre
      Score: Canadian Music Centre [external link]  [sung text not yet checked]
• by Philip Moore (b. 1943), "Winter nights" [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this page: Brian Holmes

This text was added to the website: 2004-08-14
Line count: 24
Word count: 118