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Seven songs , opus 16

by Fritz Bennicke Hart (1874 - 1949)

1. Your heart has trembled to my tongue  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Your heart has trembled to my tongue,
Your hands in mine have lain,
Your thought to me has leaned and clung,
Again and yet again,
My dear,
Again and yet again.

Now die the dream, or come the wife,
The past is not in vain,
For wholly as it was your life
Can never be again,
My dear,
Can never be again.

Text Authorship:

  • by William Ernest Henley (1849 - 1903), no title, appears in A Book of Verses, first published 1888

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2. We shall surely die  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
We shall surely die:
Must we needs grow old?
Grow old and cold,
And we know not why?

O, the By-and-By,
And the tale that's told!
We shall surely die:
Must we needs grow old?

Grow old and sigh,
Grudge and withhold,
Resent and scold? ... 
Not you and I?
We shall surely die!

Text Authorship:

  • by William Ernest Henley (1849 - 1903), no title, appears in A Book of Verses, first published 1888

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3. Thick is the darkness  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Thick is the darkness --
Sunward, O, sunward!
Rough is the highway --
Onward, still onward!

Dawn harbours surely
East of the shadows.
Facing us somewhere
Spread the sweet meadows.

Upward and forward!
Time will restore us:
Light is above us,
Rest is before us.

Text Authorship:

  • by William Ernest Henley (1849 - 1903), no title, appears in A Book of Verses, first published 1888

See other settings of this text.

4. The skies are strown with stars  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
The skies are strown with stars,
The streets are fresh with dew
A thin moon drifts to westward,
The night is hushed and cheerful.
My thought is quick with you.

Near windows gleam and laugh,
And far away a train
Clanks glowing through the stillness:
A great content's in all things,
And life is not in vain.

Text Authorship:

  • by William Ernest Henley (1849 - 1903), appears in A Book of Verses, first published 1888

Go to the general single-text view

5. A wink from Hesper, falling  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
A wink from Hesper, falling
Fast in the wintry sky,
Comes through the even blue,
Dear, like a word from you . . .
Is it good-bye?

Across the miles between us
I send you sigh for sigh.
Good-night, sweet friend, good-night:
Till life and all take flight,
Never good-bye.

Text Authorship:

  • by William Ernest Henley (1849 - 1903), no title, appears in A Book of Verses, first published 1888

Go to the general single-text view

6. Madam Life's a piece in bloom  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Madam Life's a piece in bloom
Death goes dogging everywhere:
She's the tenant of the room,
He's the ruffian on the stair.

You shall see her as a friend,
You shall bilk him once or twice;
But he'll trap you in the end,
And he'll stick you for her price.

With his kneebones at your chest,
And his knuckles in your throat,
You would reason -- plead -- protest!
Clutching at her petticoat;

But she's heard it all before,
Well she knows you've had your fun,
Gingerly she gains the door,
And your little job is done. 

Text Authorship:

  • by William Ernest Henley (1849 - 1903), no title, appears in Poems, first published 1898

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7. I gave my heart to a woman  [sung text not yet checked]

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.

Text Authorship:

  • by William Ernest Henley (1849 - 1903), no title, appears in Poems, first published 1898

Go to the general single-text view

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