LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,103)
  • Text Authors (19,447)
  • 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 Ernest Christopher Dowson (1867 - 1900)

If we must part
 (Sung text for setting by J. Ireland)
 Matches original text
Language: English 
If we must part,
 Then let it be like this;
Not heart on heart,
 Nor with the useless anguish of a kiss;
But touch mine hand and say:
"Until to-morrow or some other day,
 If we must part."

Words are so weak
 When love hath been so strong:
Let silence speak:
 "Life is a little while, and love is long;
A time to sow and reap,
And after harvest a long time to sleep,
 But words are weak."

Composition:

    Set to music by John (Nicholson) Ireland (1879 - 1962), "If we must part", 1929, published 1976 [ tenor and piano ]

Text Authorship:

  • by Ernest Christopher Dowson (1867 - 1900), "A Valediction", appears in Verses, London, Leonard Smithers, first published 1896

See other settings of this text.


Research team for this page: Ted Perry , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
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