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by Thomas Moore (1779 - 1852)

Fly to the desert, fly with me
Language: English 
Fly to the desert, fly with me,
Our Arab tents are rude for thee;
But, oh! the choice what heart can doubt
Of tents with love, or thrones without?

Our rocks are rough, but smiling there
The' acacia waves her yellow hair,
Lonely and sweet, nor lov'd the less
For flow'ring in the wilderness.

Our sands are bare, but down their slope
The silv'ry-footed antelope
As gracefully and gaily springs
As o'er the marble courts of kings.

Then come — thy Arab maid will be
The lov'd and lone acacia-tree,
The antelope, whose feet shall bless
With their light sound thy loneliness.

Oh! there are looks and tones that dart
An instant sunshine through the heart, —
As if the soul that minute caught
Some treasure it through life had sought;

As if the very lips and eyes,
Predestin'd to have all our sighs,
And never be forgot again,
Sparkled and spoke before as then!

So came thy ev'ry glance and tone
When first on me they breath'd and shone;
New, as if brought from other spheres,
Yet welcome as if lov'd for years.

Then fly with me, — if thou hast known
No other flame, nor falsely thrown
A gem away, that thou hadst sworn
Should ever in thy heart be worn.

Come, if the love thou hast for me,
Is pure and fresh as mine for thee, — 
Fresh as the fountain under ground,
When first 'tis by the lapwing found.

But if for me thou dost forsake
Some other maid, and rudely break
Her worshipp'd image from its base,
To give to me the ruin'd place; —

Then, fare thee well — I'd rather make
My bower upon some icy lake
When thawing suns begin to shine,
Than trust to love so false as thine!

Available sung texts:   ← What is this?

•   S. Coleridge-Taylor 

S. Coleridge-Taylor sets stanzas 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 4

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with The World's Best Poetry, Bliss Carman, et al., eds., Philadelphia: John D. Morris & Co., 1904 and The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore edited by A D Godfrey from Moore's 1841 edition, Oxford University Press, 1910. Page 448.


Text Authorship:

  • by Thomas Moore (1779 - 1852), no title, written 1817, appears in Lalla Rookh, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, Paternoster-Row, London 1817, first published 1817 [author's text checked 2 times 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 Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875 - 1912), "Nourmahal's Song", subtitle: "Scena for Contralto + Piano/ or Orchestra", c1895, first performed 2023, stanzas 1,2,4,7,8,4 [ contralto and piano or orchestra ], Holograph manuscript, Royal College of Music Library, London MS 4938a [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Horatia Feilding , "The song of Nourmahal", published 1830? [ chorus and piano ], from Six songs, no. 2, London : T. Boosey & Co. [sung text not yet checked]

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Iain Sneddon [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2023-06-27
Line count: 44
Word count: 298

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