So we'll go no more a-roving
  So late into the night,
Though the heart be [still]1 as loving,
  And the moon be still as bright.

For the sword outwears [the]2 sheath,
  And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart [must pause to breathe]3,
  And Love itself have rest.

Though the night was made for loving,
  And the day returns too soon,
Yet we'll go no more a-roving
  By the light of the moon.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
Included in a letter to Thomas Moore on February 28, 1817
See also Henley's "We'll go no more a-roving"
¹ Armstrong, White: "ne'er"
² Chávez: "its"
³ Armstrong, White: "itself must pause"

Text Authorship:

• by George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron (1788 - 1824), "So we'll go no more a-roving", written 1817, appears in Letters and Journals of Lord Byron: with Notices of His Life, Volume II, first published 1830 [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 Thomas Henry Wait Armstrong (1898 - ?), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1933 [ TTBB chorus a cappella ] [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Ronald A. Beckett , "So we'll go no more a-roving", 2008 [ voice and piano ], from Four Romantic Songs, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Charles Bennett , "Serenade", published 1922 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Carlos Chávez (1899 - 1978), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1946 [ SSAATTBB chorus a cappella ], from Three Nocturnes, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by George Cory (b. 1920?), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1970 [ medium voice and piano ], from Four Songs of Night [sung text not yet checked]
• by Mervyn Dale , "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1971 [ SA chorus or unison chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Robert Mills Delaney (1903 - 1956), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1931 [ SATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Robert Nathaniel Dett (1882 - 1943), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1940 [ women's chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Peter Dickinson (b. 1934), "Reminiscences", 1978, first performed 1979 [ low voice, alto saxophone, and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Bernard van Dieren (1887 - 1936), as Helen Bevan Dean, "So we'll go no more a roving", 1926 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by William Edmondstoune Duncan (1866 - 1920), "No more a-roving", published 1918 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Richard Dyer-Bennet , "So, we'll go no more a roving", <<1954 [ voice and guitar ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Lodge Ellerton (1801 - 1873), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1833 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Herbert Ferrers , "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1929 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Michael Fiveisky , "We'll go no more a-roving", published 1948 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Cecil Forsyth (1870 - 1941), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1927 [ TTBB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Patrick Arthur Sheldon Hadley (1899 - 1973), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1929 [ voice and piano or with string quintet ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Laura Karpman , "So we'll go no more a-roving ", copyright © 1986 [ soprano or tenor, flute (piccolo), English horn, bass clarinet, marimba, harpsichord, violin, viola, and contrabass ], from Stanzas for Music, no. 3, Saint Louis, Étoile Music [sung text not yet checked]
• by C. H. Keefer , "Love's rest", published 1907 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by George Kiallmark (1781 - 1835), "We'll go no more a-roving", published 1830 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Samuel Ernest Lovatt (1877 - 1954), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1934 [ TTBarB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Leighton Lucas (1903 - 1982), "No more", published 1968 [ SSA chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Elizabeth Maconchy (1907 - 1994), "So, we'll go no more a roving", 1973-4, published 1976 [ voice and harp ], from Three Songs for Voice and Harp, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Derrick Mason , "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1967 [ chorus, glockenspiel, cymbals, xylophone, triangle, and piano ], from Three Episodes [sung text not yet checked]
• by Robert Owens (1925 - 2017), "So we'll go no more a-roving" [ tenor and piano ], from Stanzas for Music, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Alexander Paucker (1905 - 1972), as Francis Chagrin, "We'll go no more a-roving", <<1972 [ voice and violoncello ad libitum ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by George Norman Peterkin (1886 - 1982), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1929 [ low voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "So we'll go no more a-roving", op. 203 (1948) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Kurt George Roger (1895 - 1966), "So, we'll go no more a roving", 1946, first performed 1950 [ baritone and piano ], from Three English Poems [sung text not yet checked]
• by Rudolph Edward Schirmer (b. 1919), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1949 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Lewys Thomas , "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1934 [ TTBB chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Millard S. Thomson (b. 1918), "So, we'll go no more a roving", 1944 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Bryceson Treharne (1879 - 1948), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1919 [ high voice and piano ], from Six songs [sung text not yet checked]
• by Samuel W. Underwood , "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1905 [ voice and piano ], from Two Short Songs [sung text not yet checked]
• by George Theophilus Walker (b. 1922), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1971 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Maude Valérie White (1855 - 1937), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1888 [ voice and piano ], London: Chappell & Co.; also published in Women Composers Music Through the Ages, ed. by Sylvia Glickman and Martha Furman Schleifer, Volume 7: Composers Born 1800 to 1899, Vocal Music, New Haven, Detroit, etc.: G.K. Hall & Co., 2003, pages 365-370, also set in French (Français) [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Pedro de Zulueta , "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1957 [ duet for soprano and tenor with piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

The text above (or a part of it) is used in the following settings:

• by T. Wallace Southam , "We'll go no more a-roving", published 1966, stanza 1 of [ voice and piano ], from Poetry Set in Jazz
  • View the full text. [sung text not yet checked]
    

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in French (Français), a translation by Louis Hennevé ; composed by Maude Valérie White.
  • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
    
• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Emil R. H. Friebel.
  • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
    

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

• FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• GER German (Deutsch) (Walter A. Aue) , "So werden wir nicht mehr schweifen", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

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: 79

Ainsi nous n'irons plus errer
    Si tard dans la nuit,
Bien que nos cœurs soient [encore]¹ si aimants
    Et la lune encore si radieuse.

Car l'épée élime [le]² fourreau
    Et l'âme use la poitrine,
Et le cœur doit faire une pause pour respirer,
   Et même l'amour doit se reposer.

Bien que la nuit fût faite pour aimer
    Et que le jour revienne trop vite,
Nous n'irons plus errer
    À la lumière de la lune.