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Six Songs

Song Cycle by Gustav Holst (1874 - 1934)

1. Calm is the morn
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Calm is the morn without a sound,
Calm as to suit a calmer grief,
And only thro' the faded leaf
The chestnut pattering to the ground:

Calm and deep peace on this high wold
And on these dews that drench the furze,
And all the silvery gossamers
That twinkle into green and gold:

Calm and still light on yon great plain
That sweeps with all its autumn bowers,
And crowded farms and lessening towers,
To mingle with the bounding main:

Calm and deep peace in this wide air,
These leaves that redden to the fall;
And in my heart, if calm at all,
If any calm, a calm despair:

Calm on the seas, and silver sleep,
And waves that sway themselves in rest,
And dead calm in that noble breast
Which heaves but in the heaving deep.

Text Authorship:

  • by Alfred Tennyson, Lord (1809 - 1892), no title, appears in In Memoriam A. H. H. obiit MDCCCXXXIII, no. 11, first published 1850

See other settings of this text.

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

  • CHI Chinese (中文) [singable] (Dr Huaixing Wang) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Geoffrey Wieting

2. My true love hath my heart  [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:

  • by Philip Sidney, Sir (1554 - 1586), no title, appears in Arcadia

See other settings of this text.

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

  • GER German (Deutsch) (Richard Flatter) , "Der Handel", appears in Die Fähre, Englische Lyrik aus fünf Jahrhunderten, first published 1936

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

3. Weep you no more
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Weep you no more, sad fountains;
  What need you flow so fast?
Look how the snowy mountains
  Heaven's sun doth gently waste!
    But my sun's heavenly eyes
      View not your weeping,
      That now lies sleeping,
    Softly, now softly lies
        Sleeping.

Sleep is a reconciling,
  A rest that peace begets;
Doth not the sun rise smiling
  When fair at ev'n he sets?
    Rest you, then, rest, sad eyes!
      Melt not in weeping,
      While she lies sleeping,
    Softly, now softly lies
        Sleeping.

Text Authorship:

  • by Anonymous / Unidentified Author ( 16th century )

See other settings of this text.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Julia Hamann) , "Tränen", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Ted Perry

4. Lovely kind, and kindly loving
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Lovely kind, and kindly loving,
Such a mind were worth the moving;
Truly fair, and fairly true -
Where are all these but in you?

Wisely kind, and kindly wise;
Blessed life, where such love lies!
Wise, and kind, and fair, and true -
Lovely live all these in you.

Sweetly dear, and dearly sweet,
Blessed where these blessings meet,
Sweet, fair, wise, kind, blessed, true -
Blessed be all these in you!

Text Authorship:

  • by Nicholas Breton (1542 - 1626), "An odd conceit", appears in Melancholic Humours, first published 1600

See other settings of this text.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

5. Cradle song  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Sweet dreams, form a shade
[O'er]1 my lovely infant's head,
Sweet dreams of pleasant streams,
By happy, silent, moony beams.

Sweet Sleep, with soft down
Weave thy brows an infant crown;
Sweet Sleep, angel mild,
Hover o'er my happy child.

Sweet smiles, in the night
Hover over my delight.
Sweet smiles, mother's [smiles]2,
All the livelong night [beguiles]3.

Sweet moans, dovelike sighs,
Chase not slumber from [thy]4 eyes!
Sweet [moans]5, sweeter [smiles]2,
All the dovelike moans [beguiles]3.

Sleep, sleep, happy child:
All creation slept and smiled.
Sleep, sleep, happy sleep,
While o'er thee [thy]6 mother weep.

Sweet babe, in thy face
Holy image I can trace;
Sweet babe, once like thee
Thy maker lay and wept for me,

Wept for me, for thee, for all,
When he was an infant small.
Thou his image ever see,
Heavenly face that smiles on thee --

Smiles on thee, on me, on all,
Who became an infant small,
Infant smiles are his own smiles;
Heaven and earth to peace beguiles.

Text Authorship:

  • by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "A Cradle Song", appears in Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Innocence, no. 11, first published 1789

See other settings of this text.

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Blake: The Complete Poems, ed. by W. H. Stevenson, Third Edition, Routledge, 2007, pages 61-62.

1 Carmichael: "Round"
2 Baxter, Moore, Thomas: "smile"
3 Baxter, Moore, Thomas: "beguile"
4 Baxter, Carmichael, Moore, Thomas: "thine"
5 Baxter, Carmichael, Moore, Thomas: "moans"
6 Baxter: "doth"

Researcher for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

6. Peace
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
The toil of day is done,
Its stress and stirring cease,
Falls soft a word, the gift of God.
'Peace.'

Opal of evening sky,
Gold of the fading west,
A single star shining afar.
Rest.

Text Authorship:

  • by Alfred Henry Hyatt (1822? - 1911)

Go to the general single-text view

Researcher for this page: Geoffrey Wieting
Total word count: 632
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This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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