Had I a man’s fair form, then might my sighs Be echoed swiftly through that ivory shell Thine ear, and find thy gentle heart; so well Would passion arm me for the enterprise; But ah! I am no knight whose foeman dies; No cuirass glistens on my bosom’s swell; I am no happy shepherd of the dell Whose lips have trembled with a maiden’s eyes. Yet must I dote upon thee—call thee sweet, Sweeter by far than Hybla’s honied roses When steep’d in dew rich to intoxication. Ah! I will taste that dew, for me ‘tis meet, And when the moon her pallid face discloses, I’ll gather some by spells, and incantation.
Keats Songs
Song Cycle by Scott Gendel (b. 1977)
1. A valentine  [sung text checked 1 time]
Authorship:
- by John Keats (1795 - 1821), "To -"
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]2. To sleep  [sung text checked 1 time]
O soft embalmer of the still midnight! Shutting with careful fingers and benign Our gloom-pleas'd eyes, embower'd from the light, Enshaded in forgetfulness divine; O soothest Sleep! if so it please thee, close In midst of this thine hymn my willing eyes, Or wait the "Amen" ere thy poppy throws Around my bed its lulling charities. Then save me, or the passèd day will shine Upon my pillow, breeding many woes, - Save me from curious Conscience, that still [lords]1 Its strength for darkness, burrowing like [a]2 mole; Turn the key deftly in the oilèd wards, And seal the hushèd Casket of my Soul.
Authorship:
- by John Keats (1795 - 1821), "To Sleep", written 1819?
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2021, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FRE French (Français) (Jean-Pierre Granger) , "Sonnet", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Richard Flatter) , "Sonett an den Schlaf", appears in Die Fähre, Englische Lyrik aus fünf Jahrhunderten, first published 1936
- NYN Norwegian (Nynorsk) (Are Frode Søholt) , "Sonnette", copyright © 2004, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- SPA Spanish (Español) (Pablo Sabat) , "Soneto"
First published in a Plymouth newspaper in 1838
1 changed to "hoards" by Richard Woodhouse, and kept by Keats in the second transcription. Chávez uses this version.
2 changed to "the" in Keats' second transcription. Chávez uses this as well.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
3. Daisy's song  [sung text checked 1 time]
The sun, with his great eye, Sees not so much as I ; And the moon, all silver, proud, Might as well be in a cloud. And the spring -- the spring ! I lead the life of a king ! Couch'd in the teeming grass, I spy each pretty lass. I look where no one dares, And I stare where no one stares, And when the night is nigh, Lambs bleat my lullaby.
Authorship:
- by John Keats (1795 - 1821), "Daisy's song", appears in Life, Letters, and Literary Remains, of John Keats, in Extracts from an Opera, first published 1848
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]4. A vision  [sung text checked 1 time]
Time's sea hath been five years at its low ebb, Long hours have to and fro let creep the sand, Since I was tangled in thy beauty's web, And snared by the ungloving of thine hand. And yet I never look on midnight sky, But I behold thine eyes' well-memoried light; I cannot look upon the rose's dye, But to thy cheek my soul doth take its flight; I cannot look on any budding flower, But my fond ear, in fancy at thy lips, And hearkening for a love-sound, doth devour Its sweets in the wrong sense: -- Thou dost eclipse Every delight with sweet remembering, And grief unto my darling joys dost bring.
Authorship:
- by John Keats (1795 - 1821), "To _", subtitle: "To a lady whom he saw for some moments at Vauxhall"
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Confirmed with The poetical works of John Keats, New York, James Miller, copyright 1871.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
5. One day  [sung text checked 1 time]
[ ... ]
Stop and consider! life is but a day;
A fragile dew-drop on its perilous way
From a tree’s summit; a poor Indian’s sleep
While his boat hastens to the monstrous steep
Of Montmorenci. Why so sad a moan?
Life is the rose’s hope while yet unblown;
The reading of an ever-changing tale;
The light uplifting of a maiden’s veil;
A pigeon tumbling in clear summer air;
A laughing school-boy, without grief or care,
Riding the springy branches of an elm. 1
Authorship:
- by John Keats (1795 - 1821), "Sleep and Poetry"
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Què és més suau que l’oreig a l’estiu?", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FRE French (Français) (Jean-Pierre Granger)
The poem is headed by a quote from Chaucer:
«As I lay in my bed slepe full unmete Was unto me, but why that I ne might Rest I ne wist, for there n’as erthly wight [As I suppose] had more of hertis ese Than I, for I n’ad sicknesse nor disese.»1 Gendel finishes his setting with a line from later in the poem: "Could all this be forgotten?"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]