LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,026)
  • Text Authors (19,309)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,112)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861)

Domesticity
Language: English 
We have fires now, though the weather is lovely for November
And I take long walks every day.
We have fires now, and as soon as the lamp comes
Robert sits in his [chair]1, and I curl myself up on the sofa.
Or perhaps on a cushion on the hearth,
And we say to one another
"Oh how delightful this is!
I do hope no one will come tonight."
So we read and talk and Robert can't keep from
Letting out the end of David Copperfield.
And I scold him and won't hear a word more.
Then the door opens, and enter
Baby holding by Wilson's finger.
"I can't think what he wants,"
Says Wilson, "but he would come."
Upon which he walks straight up to me and puts up one foot.
Pointing to it with his hand, pulling at my gown --
Perhaps you don't know what this means, but I do.
He wants to go to bed...
So I get up and go away with him and Wilson
And Robert calls after us: "Come back soon, Ba."
And I go back soon...

Available sung texts:   ← What is this?

•   D. Argento 

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Argento: "armchair"

Text Authorship:

  • by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861), from letters written by E. Browning in Florence to her sister Henrietta in England, between 1846 and 1859 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Dominick Argento (1927 - 2019), "Domesticity", 1983 [voice and piano or orchestra], from Casa Guidi, no. 5. [ sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2009-10-24
Line count: 22
Word count: 183

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

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris