by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939)
He Wishes His Beloved Were Dead
Language: English
Were you lying cold and dead, And lights were paling out of the West, You would come hither, and bend your head, And I would lay my head on your breast; And you would murmur tender words, Forgiving me, because you were dead: Nor would you rise and hasten away, Though you have the will of the wild birds, But know your hair was bound and wound About the stars and moon and sun: O would, beloved, that you lay Under the dock-leaves in the ground, While lights were paling one by one.
Text Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939) [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 Lowell Liebermann (b. 1961), "He Wishes His Beloved Were Dead", op. 40 no. 5 (1993) [ tenor, flute, string quartet, and piano ], from A Poet to His Beloved, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2022-06-15
Line count: 13
Word count: 93