I love, and he loves me again, Yet dare I not tell who; For if the nymphs should know my swain, I fear they'd love him too; Yet if he be not known, The pleasure is as good as none, For that's a narrow joy is but our own. I'll tell, that if they be not glad, They may not envy me; But then if I grow jealous mad And of them pitied be, It were a plague 'bove scorn; And yet it cannot be forborne Unless my heart would, as my thought, be torn. He is, if they can find him, fair And fresh, and fragrant too, As summer's sky or purgéd air, And looks as lilies do That are this morning blown: Yet, yet I doubt he is not known, And fear much more that more of him be shown. But he hath eyes so round and bright, As make away my doubt, Where Love may all his torches light, Though Hate had put them out; But then t' increase my fears What nymph soe'er his voice but hears Will be my rival, though she have but ears. I'll tell no more, and yet I love, And he loves me; yet no One unbecoming thought doth move From either heart I know: But so exempt from blame As it would be to each a fame, If love or fear would let me tell his name.
Folksongs from another World
Song Cycle by Benjamin C. S. Boyle
1. A nymph's passion  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Text Authorship:
- by Ben Jonson (1572 - 1637), "A nymph's passion"
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Confirmed with English Poetry I: From Chaucer to Gray. Vol. XL. The Harvard Classics. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1909–14; Bartleby.com, 2001. www.bartleby.com/40/155.html.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
2. The message  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Send home my long-strayed eyes to me, Which (oh) too long have dwelt on thee: Yet since there they have learned such ill, Such forced fashions, And false passions, That they be Made by thee Fit for no good sight, keep them still. Send home my harmless heart again, Which no unworthy thought could stain, But if it be taught by thine To make jestings Of protestings, And cross both Word and oath, Keep it, for then 'tis none of mine. Yet send me back my heart and eyes, That I may know, and see thy lies, And may laugh and joy, when thou Art in anguish And dost languish For some one That will none, Or prove as false as thou art now.
Text Authorship:
- by John Donne (1572 - 1631), "The message"
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]3. To music, to becalm his fever  [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.
Text 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]
4. Dawn
Language: English
— This text is not currently
in the database but will be added
as soon as we obtain it. —
5. Karolin's song  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Though I am young and cannot tell Either what love or death is well, Yet I have heard they both bear darts, And both do aim at human hearts; And then again I have been told, Love wounds with heat, and death with cold; So that I fear they do but bring [Extreams]1 to touch, and mean one thing. As in a ruin, we it call One thing to be blown up, or fall; Or to our end, like way [we]2 have, By [a]3 flash of lightning, or a wave; So love's inflamed shaft or brand, May kill as soon as death's cold hand; Except love's fires the virtue have To fright the frost out of the grave.
Text Authorship:
- by Ben Jonson (1572 - 1637), written 1634, appears in The Sad Shepherd, or, a tale of Robin Hood, Act I, Scene 2, unfinished
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View original text (without footnotes)1 modernized to "Extremes"
2 Lanier: "may"
3 omitted by Gurney.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 622