LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,120)
  • Text Authors (19,527)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by William Allingham (1824 - 1889)

Good‑bye, good‑bye to Summer!
Language: English 
Good-bye, good-bye to Summer!
    For Summer's nearly done; 
The garden smiling faintly,
    Cool breezes in the sun; 
Our Thrushes now are silent,
    Our Swallows flown away, -- 
But Robin's here, in coat of brown,
    With ruddy breast-knot gay. 
Robin, Robin Redbreast,
    O Robin dear! 
Robin singing sweetly
    In the falling of the year.

Bright yellow, red, and orange,
    The leaves come down in hosts; 
The trees are Indian Princes,
    But soon they'll turn to Ghosts; 
The scanty pears and apples
    Hang russet on the bough, 
It's Autumn, Autumn, Autumn late,
    'Twill soon be Winter now. 
Robin, Robin Redbreast,
    O Robin dear! 
And welaway! my Robin,
    For pinching times are near.

The fireside for the Cricket,
    The wheatstack for the Mouse, 
When trembling night-winds whistle
    And moan all round the house; 
The frosty ways like iron,
    The branches plumed with snow, -- 
Alas! in Winter, dead and dark,
    Where can poor Robin go? 
Robin, Robin Redbreast,
    O Robin dear! 
And a crumb of bread for Robin,
    His little heart to cheer.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by William Allingham (1824 - 1889), "Robin Redbreast", appears in Poems, first published 1861 [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 (William) Havergal Brian (1876 - 1972), "Goodbye to Summer", published 1914. [SA chorus a cappella] [
     text not verified 
    ]
  • by Henry Clough-Leighter (1874 - 1956), "Robin Redbreast", published 1933 [chorus a cappella], from Rhythm Songs [
     text not verified 
    ]
  • by Friedrich Gernsheim (1839 - 1916), "Robin Redbreast", published 1915 [voices a cappella], from The Progressive Music Series [
     text not verified 
    ]
  • by J. M. Hubbard , "Robin Redbreast", published 1882 [voice, piano], from Treasury of Song for the Home Circle [
     text not verified 
    ]
  • by E. W. Johns , "Robin Redbreast", published 1918 [SSA chorus piano], from Junior Songs [
     text not verified 
    ]
  • by Geoffrey Molyneux Palmer (1882 - 1957), "Good-bye to Summer", published 1914. [unison chorus and piano] [
     text not verified 
    ]
  • by Charles Villiers Stanford, Sir (1852 - 1924), "Robin Redbreast", published 1907. [2-part women's chorus a cappella] [
     text not verified 
    ]
  • by Eric Harding Thiman (1900 - 1975), "Robin Redbreast", published 1935. [SA chorus and piano] [
     text not verified 
    ]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2005-12-19
Line count: 36
Word count: 168

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris