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Six Songs for Two Sopranos , opus 138
by Charles Villiers Stanford, Sir (1852 - 1924)
1. A Welcome Song
Language: English
2. To Music  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Charm me asleep, and melt me so With thy delicious numbers, That, being ravish'd, hence I go Away in easy slumbers. Ease my sick head, And make my bed, Thou power that canst sever From me this ill, And quickly still, Though thou not kill My fever. Thou sweetly canst convert the same From a consuming fire Into a gentle licking flame, And make it thus expire. Then make me weep My pains asleep; And give me such reposes That I, poor I, May think thereby I live and die 'Mongst roses. Fall on me like [a]1 silent dew, Or like those maiden showers Which, by the peep of day, do strew A baptism o'er the flowers Melt, melt my [pains]2 With thy soft strains; That, having ease me given, With full delight I leave this light, And take my flight [For]3 Heaven.
Authorship:
- by Robert Herrick (1591 - 1674), "To Music, to becalm his fever"
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View original text (without footnotes)1 Ewazen, Hindemith: "the"
2 Ewazen: "pain"
3 Gideon, Hindemith: "To"
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Garrett Medlock [Guest Editor]
3. Autumn  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
The warm sun is failing, the bleak wind is wailing, The bare boughs are sighing, the pale flowers are dying, And the Year On the earth her death-bed, in a shroud of leaves dead, Is lying. Come, Months, come away, From November to May, In your saddest array; Follow the bier Of the dead cold Year, And like dim shadows watch by her sepulchre. The chill rain is falling, the nipped worm is crawling, The rivers are swelling, the thunder is knelling For the Year; The blithe swallows are flown, and the lizards each gone To his dwelling; Come, Months, come away; Put on white, black, and gray; Let your light sisters play -- Ye, follow the bier Of the dead cold Year, And make her grave green with tear on tear.
Authorship:
- by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822), "Autumn: A dirge", appears in Posthumous Poems, first published 1824
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "Jeseň (Žalozpěv)", Prague, J. Otto, first published 1901
4. The Chase
Language: English
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5. Meg Merrilies  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Old Meg she was a Gipsy, And liv'd upon the Moors: Her bed it was the brown heath turf, And her house was out of doors. Her apples were swart blackberries, Her currants pods o' broom; Her wine was dew of the wild white rose, Her book a churchyard tomb. Her Brothers were the craggy hills, Her Sisters larchen trees-- Alone with her great family She liv'd as she did please. No breakfast had she many a morn, No dinner many a noon, And 'stead of supper she would stare Full hard against the Moon. But every morn of woodbine fresh She made her garlanding, And every night the dark glen Yew She wove, and she would sing. And with her fingers old and brown She plaited Mats o' Rushes, And gave them to the Cottagers She met among the Bushes. Old Meg was brave as Margaret Queen And tall as Amazon: An old red blanket cloak she wore; A chip hat had she on. God rest her aged bones somewhere-- She died full long agone!
Authorship:
- by John Keats (1795 - 1821)
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Researcher for this page: Nich Roehler6. O sweet content  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Art thou poor, yet hast thou golden slumbers: O sweet content! Art thou rich yet is thy mind perplexed, O punishment. Dost thou laugh to see how fools are vexed, To add to golden numbers, golden numbers. O sweet content, etc. [Work]1 work apace, apace, apace; Honest labor bears a lovely face; Then hey nonny, hey nonny: hey nonny, nonny. Canst drink the waters of the crisped spring, O sweet content! Swim'st thou in wealth, yet sink'st in thine own tears, O punishment. Then he [that]2 patiently wants, burden bears, No burden bears, but is a King, a King. O sweet content, etc.
Authorship:
- by Thomas Dekker (c1572 - 1632), "The song", appears in The Pleasant Comoedy of Patient Grissill, first published 1603
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View original text (without footnotes)Confirmed with Henry Chettle and Thomas Dekker, Patient Grissil, London, 1632. Modernized spelling.
1 Beach: "Then work"2 Beach: "who"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]