Though you are in your shining days,
Voices among the crowd
And new friends busy with your praise,
Be not unkind or proud,
But think about old friends the most:
Time's bitter flood will rise,
Your beauty perish and be lost
For all eyes but these eyes.

First published in Saturday Review, July 1897, as "Song", revised 1899 and 1906

Text Authorship:

• by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "The Lover Pleads with His Friend for Old Friends", appears in The Wind among the reeds, first published 1899 [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 Ben Moore (b. 1960), "The lover pleads with his friend for old friends" [ medium-high voice and piano ], from 14 Songs, no. 10, G. Schirmer [sung text not yet checked]
• by Paul Schwartz (1907 - 1999), "The Lover Pleads with His Friend for Old Friends", 1945 [ high voice or medium voice and piano ], from A Poet to His Beloved [sung text not yet checked]

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

• ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "L'innamorato supplica l'amica a favore dei vecchi amici", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2004-06-14
Line count: 8
Word count: 47