Sonnet XIX - "Devouring Time" | Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws

Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's...

Language: English

Our translations: ITA

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 sorry seasons as thou fleets,
As do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,
To the wide world and all 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.

Available sung texts: ← What is this?

• G. Bachlund

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Text Authorship:

by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 19 [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 Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "Sonnet XIX - "Devouring Time"", 2002 [ high voice or medium voice and piano ], from Five Sonnets, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Miriam Gideon (1906 - 1996), "Sonnet XIX: Devouring Time", 1949 [ voice and piano, or voice and trumpet and string quartet (or string orchestra) ], from Sonnets from Shakespeare, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
by Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet XIX", 1862-5 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Flavio Testi (b. 1923), "cantata seconda (devouring time)", op. 24 (1972), published 1973, first performed 1973 [ tenor, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, violin, and piano ], Milan: Ricordi [sung text not yet checked]

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
RUS Russian (Русский) (Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky) , "Сонет 19", written 1914

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2007-05-07
Line count: 14
Word count: 117