by William Ernest Henley (1849 - 1903)
I gave my heart to a woman
Language: English
I gave my heart to a woman -- I gave it her, branch and root. She bruised, she wrung, she tortured, She cast it under foot. Under her feet she cast it, She trampled it where it fell, She broke it all to pieces, And each was a clot of hell. There in the rain and the sunshine They lay and smouldered long; And each, when again she viewed them, Had turned to a living song.
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Text Authorship:
- by William Ernest Henley (1849 - 1903), no title, appears in Poems, first published 1898 [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 Fritz Bennicke Hart (1874 - 1949), "I gave my heart to a woman", op. 16 (Seven songs) no. 7 (1913) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2008-12-10
Line count: 12
Word count: 75