When thou art dead the birds will stop their singing, When thou are cold no sun will ever rise, No more, no more the joyful days, upspringing, Shall bless these eyes. When thou art in the grave the flowers blowing Shall hang their heads and sicken in the grave, Beauty will fade and wihher at thy going, My only love. Ah say not so! another love will cheer thee, The sun will rise as bright to-morrow morn, The birds will sing though I no longer near the Must lie forlorn. When I am in my grave the flowers blowing Shall make the garlands twenty times as sweet, Beauty will live, though I must sleep unknowing Beneath my feet.
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Text Authorship:
- by Margaret Kennedy (1896 - 1967) [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 (Aynsley) Eugene Goossens, Sir (1893 - 1962), "When thou art dead", published 1926 [ voice, piano ], London: J. Curwen & Sons Ltd.
Score: IMSLP [external link] [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Daniel Benjamin Miller [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2026-07-31
Line count: 16
Word count: 118