by Edmund Spenser (1552 - 1599)
My love is like to ice, and I to fire
Language: English
My love is like to ice, and I to fire; How comes it then that this her cold so great Is not dissolv'd through my so hot desire, But grows the more I her intreat? Or how comes it that my exceeding heat Is not delay'd by her heart frozen cold, But that I burn much more in boiling sweat And feel my flames augmented manifold? What more miraculous thing may be told, That fire, which all things melts, should harden ice, And that ice, which is congeal'd with senseless cold, Should kindle fire by wonderful device? Such is the power of love in gentle mind, That it can alter all the course of kind.
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Authorship:
- by Edmund Spenser (1552 - 1599) [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 Jean Berger, né Arthur Schloßberg (1909 - 2002), "My love is like to ice, and I to fire", published 1984, from Amoretti: Five love songs on poems by 16th and 17th century authors, no. 2. [ sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: John Glenn Paton [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2004-06-06
Line count: 14
Word count: 115