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by Alfred Perceval Graves (1846 - 1931)

The stratagem
Language: English 
Who'd win a heart must learn the art
To hide what he's about.
When Kate I met, too soon I let
My loving secret out.
In vain  I'd sigh, in vain I'd try
Each trick of eye and speech;
Advance, retire, neglect, admire,
The rogue I could not reach.
Then I grew warm and in a storm
Against her out I blew,
And she stood fast before my blast
And raging I withdrew.

Then I began a different plan,
I went to Rose Maguire,
Who'd had her scene with Con Mulqueen,
And asked her to conspire.
Says she, "Avick, we'll try the trick."
And so we shammed sweethearts,
Till Con grew vexed and Kate perplexed,
So well we played our parts:
And when we found them turning round
The very way we wanted,
Our stratagem we owned to them
And got our pardon granted.

Text Authorship:

  • by Alfred Perceval Graves (1846 - 1931) [author's text not yet checked 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 Charles Villiers Stanford, Sir (1852 - 1924), "The stratagem", op. 76 no. 5, published 1901 [voice and piano], from Songs of Erin, no. 5, London, Boosey [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

Researcher for this page: Mike Pearson

This text was added to the website: 2016-09-13
Line count: 24
Word count: 144

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