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A Miscellany of Love Songs

Song Cycle by Emma Lou Diemer (b. 1927)

1. Strings in the earth and air  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Strings in the earth and air 
  Make music sweet; 
Strings by the river where 
  The willows meet. 

There's music along the river 
  [For Love wanders there,]1
Pale [flowers]2 on his mantle, 
  Dark leaves on his hair. 

All softly playing, 
  With head to [the]3 music bent, 
And fingers straying 
  Upon an instrument.

Text Authorship:

  • by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), appears in Chamber Music, no. 1, first published 1907

See other settings of this text.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

View original text (without footnotes)
1 omitted by Berio
2 Coulthard: "flow'rs"
3 omitted by Coulthard

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

2. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
[Sometime]1 too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to [time thou growest]2:
  [So long]3 as men [can]4 breathe or eyes can see,
  So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Text Authorship:

  • by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 18

See other settings of this text.

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

  • DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (L. A. J. Burgersdijk)
  • FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Erkki Pullinen) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 18, first published 1857
  • FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot) , no title, appears in Œuvres Complètes de Shakspeare Volume VIII, in Sonnets, no. 18, first published 1863
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Ludwig Reinhold Walesrode) , first published 1840
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Dovrei paragonarti ad un giorno d'estate?", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • RUS Russian (Русский) (Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky) , "Сонет 18", written 1914

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Wilkinson: "Sometimes"
2 Aikin: "times thou grow'st"
3 Wilkinson: "As long"
4 Aikin: "shall"

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Johann Winkler

3. Love me not for comely grace  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
[Love not me for comely grace]1,
For my pleasing eye [or]2 face,
Nor for any outward part,
[No, nor for my]3 constant heart:
  For [these]4 may [fail]5 or turn to ill,
   So [thou]6 and I shall sever:
Keep, therefore, a true [woman's]7 eye,
And love me still but know not why;
  So [hast thou]8 the same reason still
   To [doat upon]9 me ever!

Text Authorship:

  • by Anonymous / Unidentified Author

See other settings of this text.

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Baxter: "Love me not for comely grace"
2 Baxter: "or my pleasing"
3 Baxter: "Nor for a"
4 Head, Wilbye: "those"
5 Wilbye: "fade"
6 Baxter: "you"
7 Baxter: "lover's"
8 Baxter: "you have"
9 Baxter: "dote on"

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

4. Spring, the sweet spring  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Spring, the sweet Spring, is the year's pleasant king;
Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,
Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing,
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

The palm and may make country houses gay,
Lambs frisk and play, the [shepherds pipe]1 all day,
And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay,
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet,
Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit,
In every street these tunes our ears do greet,
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!
Spring! The sweet Spring!

Text Authorship:

  • by Thomas Nashe (1567 - 1601), appears in Summer's Last Will and Testament, first published 1600

See other settings of this text.

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

  • GER German (Deutsch) (Julia Hamann) , "Frühling", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Argento: "shepherd pipes"

Researcher for this page: Ted Perry

5. Two Epigrams: Antiquary. Manliness. [sung text not yet checked]

Note: this is a multi-text setting


If in his study he hath so much care
To hang all old strange things, let his wife beware.

Text Authorship:

  • by John Donne (1572 - 1631), "Antiquary", appears in Epigrams

Go to the general single-text view

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]



Thou call'st me effeminat, for I love womens joyes
I call not thee manly, though thou follow boyes.

Text Authorship:

  • by John Donne (1572 - 1631)

Go to the general single-text view

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]


6. Be music, night  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Be music, night
 [ ... ]

Text Authorship:

  • by Kenneth Patchen (1911 - 1972), copyright ©

See other settings of this text.

This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.

7. Do me that love

Language: English 
— This text is not currently
in the database but will be added
as soon as we obtain it. —

Text Authorship:

  • by Kenneth Patchen (1911 - 1972), copyright ©

Go to the general single-text view

This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.

8. How instant joy

Language: English 
— This text is not currently
in the database but will be added
as soon as we obtain it. —

Text Authorship:

  • by Robert Penn Warren (1905 - 1989), copyright ©

Go to the general single-text view

This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.

9. From Love: Two Vignettes. Titled Mediterranean Beach: Day after Storm

Language: English 
— This text is not currently
in the database but will be added
as soon as we obtain it. —

Text Authorship:

  • by Robert Penn Warren (1905 - 1989), copyright ©

Go to the general single-text view

This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.
Total word count: 486
Gentle Reminder

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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