Three Songs with Piano

by Arthur Somervell, Sir (1863 - 1937)

1. The Bargain  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
My true Love hath my heart and I have his.
By just exchange, one [for]1 the other given:
I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss;
There never was a [bargain better]2 driven[.]3
His heart in me keeps [me and him]4 in one;
My heart in him his thoughts and senses [guides]5:
He loves my heart, for once it was his own;
I cherish his because in me it bides[.]3
His heart his wound received from my sight;
My heart was wounded with his wounded heart;
For as from me on him his hurt did light,
So still methought in me his hurt did smart:
Both equal hurt, in this change sought our bliss:
My true Love hath my heart, and I have his.

Text Authorship:

See other settings of this text.

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

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Love Songs of English Poets, 1500-1800, New York : D. Appleton and Company, 1892, in which it is titled "Sonnet to Stella", which is probably not the author's title.

Parodied in Archibald Stodart-Walker's My true friend hath my hat.

1 Foote: "to"
2 Adler, Carwithen, Foote, Gounod, Rutter, Wilkinson: "better bargain"
3 Adler, Carwithen, Foote: ":/ My true Love hath my heart and I have his." (first line is repeated)
4 Adler, Carwithen, Foote: "him and me"
5 Adler, Carwithen: "guide"

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Ted Perry

2. Love's apology
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Fain would I change that note
To which fond Love hath charm'd me
Long, long to sing by rote,
Fancying that that harm'd me:

Yet when this thought doth come
'Love is the perfect sum 
Of all delight!'
I have no other choice
Either for pen or voice
To sing or write.

O Love! they wrong thee much
That say thy fruit is bitter,
When thy rich fruit is such
As nothing can be sweeter.

Fair house of joy and bliss,
Where truest pleasure is,
I do adore thee:
I know thee what thou art,
I serve thee with my heart,
And fall before thee.

Text Authorship:

  • by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
  • sometimes misattributed to Tobias Hume (c1569 - 1645)

See other settings of this text.

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Ted Perry

3. Come to me in my dreams
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Come to me in my dreams, and then
By day I shall be well again!
For then the night will more than pay
The hopeless longing of the day.

Come, as thou cam'st a thousand times,
A messenger from radiant climes,
And smile on thy new world, and be
As kind to others as to me.

Or, as thou never cam'st in sooth,
Come now, and let me dream it truth;
And part my hair, and kiss my brow,
And say - My love! why sufferest thou? 

Come to me in my dreams, and then
By day I shall be well again!
For then the night will more than pay
The hopeless longing of the day.

Text Authorship:

See other settings of this text.

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Ted Perry , Iain Sneddon [Guest Editor] , Garrett Medlock [Guest Editor]
Total word count: 353