Slow, slow, fresh fount, keep time with my salt tears: [Yet slower, yet; O faintly,]1 gentle springs: List to the heavy part the music bears, Woe weeps out her [division]2 when she sings. Droop herbs and flowers, Fall grief in showers, Our [beauties are]3 not ours; [O, I could still,]4 Like melting snow upon some craggy hill, [Drop, drop, drop, drop,]5 Since [nature's]6 pride is, now, a withered daffodil.
To Music
Song Cycle by Leslie R. Bassett (b. 1923)
1. Slow, slow fresh fount  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Text Authorship:
- by Ben Jonson (1572 - 1637), from Cynthia's Revels, Act I Scene 2.
See other settings of this text.
View original text (without footnotes)1 Horsley: "O slower yet, O fainter"
2 Horsley: "division"
3 Horsley: "beauty is"
4 Quilter: "Or I could still"; Horsley: "O could I still"
5 Horsley: "Fall down, fall down."
6 Horsley: "summer's"
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
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.
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]
3. Great art thou  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Great art thou, O music and with thee there is no competitor... Thou art like pure love... Therefore thou art like Heaven and Heaven is like Thee.
Text Authorship:
- by William Billings (1746 - 1800)
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]Total word count: 239