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Varieties of Amorous Experience

Song Cycle by Elizabeth Walton Vercoe (b. 1941)

1. Qui bien aime
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Now welcome, somer with thy sonne softe
  that hast this wintres weders over shake,
And driven away the longe nightes blake!

Saint Valentine, that art full hy in lofte,
Thus singen smalle foules for thy sake;
Now welcome, somer with thy sonne softe
  that hast this wintres weders over shake.

Wel have they cause for to gladden ofte,
Sith ech of hem recovered hath his make;
Ful blissfully they singen when they wake:
Now welcome, somer with thy sonne softe
that hast this wintres weders over shake
And driven away the longe nightes blake!

Text Authorship:

  • by Geoffrey Chaucer (c1343 - 1400)

See other settings of this text.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

2. An appeal to cats in the business of love
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Ye cats that at midnighte spit love at each other,
Who best feel the pangs of a passionate lover. 
I appeal to your scratches and your tattered fur,
If the business of Love be no more than to purr. 
Old Lady Gimalkin with her gooseberry eyes,
Knew something when a kitten, for why she is wise;
You find by experiences, the love-fit's soon o'er.
Puss! Puss! lasts not long, but turns to Cat-whore!

Text Authorship:

  • by Coventry (Kersey Dighton) Patmore (1823 - 1896)

Go to the general single-text view

Researcher for this page: Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]

3. How like a winter
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
How like a winter hath my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
What old December's bareness everywhere!
And yet this time remov'd was summer's time,
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burthen of the prime,
Like widow'd wombs after their lords' decease:
Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me
But hope of orphans and unfather'd fruit;
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
And thou away, the very birds are mute;
  Or if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer
  That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near.

Text Authorship:

  • by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 97

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 97, first published 1857
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "E' stata la mia assenza simile a freddo inverno", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Barbara Miller

4. The kiss
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
'I saw you take his kiss!' ''Tis true.”
'O, modesty!' ''Twas strictly kept:
He thought me asleep; at least I knew
He thought I thought he thought I slept.”

Text Authorship:

  • by Thomas Flatman (1637 - 1688)

Go to the general single-text view

Researcher for this page: Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]
Total word count: 304
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