Ask me no more | Ask me no more where Jove bestows

by Thomas Carew (1595? - 1639?)

Ask me no more where Jove bestows

Language: English

Our translations: FRE

Ask me no more where Jove bestows,
When June is past, the fading rose;
For in your beauty's orient deep
These flowers, as in their causes, sleep. 

Ask me no more whither do stray
The golden atoms of the day;
For in pure love heaven did prepare
Those powders to enrich your hair.  

Ask me no more whither doth haste
The nightingale, when May is past;
For in your sweet dividing throat
She winters, and keeps warm her note.  

Ask me no more where those stars 'light,
That downwards fall in dead of night;
For in your eyes they sit, and there
Fixèd become as in their sphere.  

Ask me no more if east or west
The Phœnix builds her spicy nest;
For unto you at last she flies,
And in your fragrant bosom dies.

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Text Authorship:

by Thomas Carew (1595? - 1639?), "Ask me no more" [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 Olivier Greif (1950 - 2000), "Song", op. 310 no. 7 (1995) [ voice and piano ], from Les chants de l'âme, no. 7 [sung text checked 1 time]
by William Lawes (1602 - 1645), "Ask me no more where Jove bestows", from Songs from the Autograph Songbook, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
by Elisabeth Charlotta Henrietta Ernestina Sonntag (1866 - 1950), "Ask me no more", 1898, published 1899, first performed 1925 [ voice and piano ], as Else Headlam-Morley [sung text checked 1 time]
by Maude Valérie White (1855 - 1937), "When June is past", published 1888 [ voice and piano ], London: Stanley Lucas, Weber & Co. [sung text not yet checked]

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

Researcher for this page: Jacques L'oiseleur des Longchamps

This text was added to the website: 2009-03-21
Line count: 20
Word count: 138