Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly? Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy. Why lovest thou that which thou receivest not gladly, Or else receivest with pleasure thine annoy? If the true concord of well-tunèd sounds, By unions married, do offend thine ear, They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear. Mark how one string, sweet husband to another, Strikes each in each by mutual ordering, Resembling sire and child and happy mother, Who, all in one, one pleasing note do sing. Whose speechless song, being many, seeming one, Sings this to thee: "Thou single wilt prove none."
Sonnets from Shakespeare
Song Cycle by Miriam Gideon (1906 - 1996)
1. Sonnet VIII: Music to Hear  [sung text not yet checked]
Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 8
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Erkki Pullinen) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot) , no title, appears in Œuvres Complètes de Shakspeare Volume VIII, in Sonnets, no. 8, first published 1863
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 8, first published 1857
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Tu, musica all'orecchio, perché triste la musica ascolti?", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
2. Sonnet XIX: Devouring Time  [sung text not yet checked]
Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws, And make the earth devour her own sweet brood; Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws, And burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood; Make glad [and]1 sorry seasons as thou fleets, As do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed Time, To the wide world and [all]2 her fading sweets; But I forbid thee one most heinous crime: O! carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow, Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen; Him in thy course untainted do allow For beauty's pattern to succeeding men. Yet, do thy worst old Time: despite thy wrong, My love shall in my verse ever live young.
Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 19
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. 19, first published 1857
- FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot) , appears in Œuvres Complètes de Shakspeare Volume VIII, in Sonnets, no. 19, first published 1863
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "O Tempo divorante, spunta al leone gli artigli", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- RUS Russian (Русский) (Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky) , "Сонет 19", written 1914
1 Bachlund: "the"
2 omitted by Bachlund.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
3. Sonnet XXXIII: Full many a glorious morning  [sung text not yet checked]
Full many a glorious morning have I seen Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye, Kissing with golden face the meadows green, Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy; Anon permit the basest clouds to ride With ugly rack on his celestial face, And from the forlorn world his visage hide, Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace: Even so my sun one early morn did shine With all triumphant splendor on my brow; But out, alack! he was but one hour mine; The region cloud hath mask'd him from me now. Yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth; Suns of the world may stain when heaven's sun staineth.
Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 33
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. 33, first published 1857
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Più di un glorioso mattino ho contemplato", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
4. Sonnet LXXI: No longer mourn for me  [sung text not yet checked]
No longer mourn for me when I am dead Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell Give warning to the world that I am fled From this vile world with vilest worms to dwell: Nay, if you read this line, remember not The hand that writ it, for I love you so, That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot, If thinking on me then should make you woe. O! if, -- I say you look upon this verse, When I [perhaps]1 compounded am with clay, Do not so much as my poor name rehearse; But let your love even with my life decay; Lest the wise world should look into your moan, And mock you with me after I am gone.
Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 71
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. 71, first published 1857
- GER German (Deutsch) (Ernst Eckstein) , "Sonett", subtitle: "(Nach dem Englischen des William Shakespeare.)", appears in In Moll und Dur, in 3. Dritte Abtheilung
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Quando morrò, più a lungo, il tuo pianto", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
1 Parry: "perchance"
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
5. Sonnet CXXIII: No, Time, thou shalt not boast  [sung text not yet checked]
No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change: Thy pyramids built up with newer might To me are nothing novel, nothing strange; They are but dressings of a former sight. Our dates are brief, and therefore we admire What thou dost foist upon us that is old, And rather make them born to our desire Than think that we before have heard them told. Thy registers and thee I both defy, Not wondering at the present nor the past, For thy records and what we see doth lie, Made more or less by thy continual haste. This I do vow and this shall ever be; I will be true, despite thy scythe and thee.
Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 123
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický)
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 123, first published 1857
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "No, Tempo, del mio mutare non potrai farti vanto", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission