Never seek to tell thy love Love that never told [can]1 be; For the gentle wind does move Silently, invisibly. I told my love, I told my love, I told her all my heart, [Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears]2 -- Ah, she [doth]3 depart. Soon as she was gone from me [A traveller came by]4 Silently, invisibly -- [He took her with a sigh]5.
Five Old Love Songs
Song Cycle by Rosy Auguste Geiger Kullman (1886 - 1964)
1. Never seek to tell thy love [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Text Authorship:
- by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "Love's Secret"
See other settings of this text.
View original text (without footnotes)1 Stöhr: "shall"
2 Stöhr: "Trembling between hope and fear"
3 Stöhr: "did"
4 Stöhr: "A boy chanced going by"
5 Leoni: "O, was no deny"
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Johann Winkler
2. Sleep, sleep, beauty bright [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Sleep, sleep, beauty bright, Dreaming o'er the joys of night; Sleep, sleep, in thy sleep Little sorrows sit and weep. Sweet babe, in thy face Soft desires I can trace, Secret joys and secret smiles, Little pretty infant wiles. As thy softest limbs I feel, Smiles as of the morning steal O'er thy cheek, and o'er thy breast Where thy little heart does rest. O! the cunning wiles that creep In thy little heart asleep. When thy little heart does wake Then the dreadful lightnings break, From thy cheek and from thy eye, O'er the youthful harvests nigh. Infant wiles and infant smiles Heaven and Earth of peace beguiles.
Text Authorship:
- by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "A cradle song", written c1793, appears in Notebook, possibly intended for Songs of Innocence
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Total word count: 177