LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,102)
  • Text Authors (19,442)
  • 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 (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830 - 1894)

Love's lament
 (Sung text for setting by M. Head)
 Matches original text
Language: English 
Why were you born when the snow was falling? 
You should have come to the cuckoo's calling 
Or when grapes are green in the cluster, 
Or, at least, when lithe swallows muster 
  For their far off flying 
  From summer dying. 

Why did you die when the lambs were cropping? 
You should have died at the apples' dropping, 
When the grasshopper comes to trouble, 
And the wheat-fields are sodden stubble, 
  And all winds go sighing 
  For sweet things dying.
First published in Argosy, January 1874

Composition:

    Set to music by Michael (Dewar) Head (1900 - 1976), "Love's lament", 1918, published 1919 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ]

Text Authorship:

  • by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830 - 1894), "A dirge"

See other settings of this text.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 78

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