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by Claude Mckay (1890 - 1948)

Romance
 (Sung text for setting by S. Okpebholo)
 See base text
Language: English 
To clasp you now and feel your head close-pressed,
Scented and warm against my beating breast;

To whisper soft and quivering your name,
And drink the passion burning in your frame;

To lie at full length, taut, with cheek to cheek,
And tease your mouth with kisses till you speak

Love words, mad words, dream words, sweet senseless words,
Melodious like notes of mating birds;

To hear you ask if I shall love always,
And myself answer: Till the end of days;

To feel your easeful sigh of happiness
When on your trembling lips I murmur: Yes;

It is so sweet. We know it is not true.
What matters it? The night must shed her dew.

We know it is not true, it is sweet —
The poem with this music is complete.

Composition:

    Set to music by Shawn Okpebholo (b. 1981), "Romance" [ tenor and piano ]

Text Authorship:

  • by Claude Mckay (1890 - 1948), "Romance", appears in Harlem Shadows, The Poems of Claude McKay, first published 1922

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Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2023-10-04
Line count: 16
Word count: 135

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