My Pretty Rose Tree | My pretty rose tree | A flower was offered to me

A flower was offered to me

Language: English

A flower was offered to me;
Such a flower as May never bore.
But I said I've a Pretty Rose-tree!
And I passed the sweet flower o'er.

Then I went to my Pretty Rose-tree;
To tend her by day and by night.
But my Rose turn'd away with jealousy:
And her thorns were my only delight.

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Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "My Pretty Rose Tree", appears in Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Experience, no. 13, first published 1794 [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 Alwyn (1905 - 1985), "The rose tree", 1933, from Songs of Experience, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
by William Henry Bell (1873 - 1946), "My pretty rose tree", 1940, from Twelve Blake Songs, no. 7 [sung text not yet checked]
by William Bolcom (b. 1938), "My pretty rose tree", 1956-81 [ solo voices, chorus, and orchestra ], from Songs of Experience, Volume Two, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
by Mark Leopold Bucci (b. 1929), "The rose tree", published 1968, from The Wondrous Kingdom (Flora and Fauna), no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
by Robert Cross (b. 1899), "My pretty rose tree", 1951 [ voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Norman Curtis (b. 1933), "My pretty rose tree", c1959 [ voice and piano ], from William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience, no. 22 [sung text not yet checked]
by Ole Carsten Green (b. 1922), "My pretty rose tree", op. 27a no. 13 (1973) [ voice and piano ], from Songs of Experience, no. 13 [sung text not yet checked]
by David Haines (b. 1956), "My pretty rose tree", 1972-9, rev. 1984, first performed 1979 [ high voice and piano ], from Songs of Experience, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
by Alfred Matthew Hale (1875 - 1960), "My pretty rose tree", op. 16 no. 12, published 1910 [ voice and piano ], from Twelve Songs, no. 12, London : A. Lengnick [sung text not yet checked]
by Fritz Bennicke Hart (1874 - 1949), "My pretty rose tree", op. 25 (Seven songs) no. 5 (1917) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Gary Michael Higginson (b. 1952), "My pretty rose tree", op. 33 no. 5 (1977), first performed 1979 [ SATB chorus a cappella ], from Seven Songs of William Blake, Set I, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
by Tõnu Kalam , "My pretty rose tree", 1966-7, first performed 1967 [ soprano and piano ], from A Garden of Experience, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
by Mary Margaret Kelly (b. 1957), "My pretty rose tree", 1984-5 [ SSA chorus a cappella ], from Six Songs for School Chorus, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
by Nika Leoni , "My Pretty Rose Tree", 2023 [ high voice, clarinet, viola ], from Never Seek To Tell Thy Love, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Joan Littlejohn (b. 1937), "My pretty rose tree", 1967-70, first performed 1971 [ voice and piano ], from Blakes Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Showing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul, Part II : Songs of Experience, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
by Nailah Nombeko , "My Pretty Rose Tree", 2019 [ soprano and piano ], from Short Songs to the Poetry of William Blake, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
by Poul Rovsing Olsen (1922 - 1982), "My pretty rose tree", op. 7 no. 1, published 1947, first performed 1948 [ soprano and piano ], from Four Songs, no. 1, Copenhagen : Viking Musikforlag [sung text not yet checked]
by Sven-David Sandström (b. 1942), "My pretty rose tree (To Gudrun)", 1980, first performed 1982 [ mixed chorus a cappella ], from Three Poems by William Blake, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
by William Spencer Schwartz , "My pretty rose tree", c1921 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Øistein Sommerfeldt (1919 - 1994), "My pretty rose tree ", 1967, published c1970 [ SSAATB chorus a cappella ], from Three Songs from Wiliam Blake, no. 2, NY : Walton Music Corp. [sung text not yet checked]
by Dorothy Strutt (b. 1941), "A flower was offered me ", 1961 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by John Austin Sykes (1909 - 1962), "My pretty rose tree", c1931, first performed 1975 [ baritone and piano ], from Songs of Experience, no. 9 [sung text not yet checked]
by John David White (b. 1931), "My pretty rose tree ", first performed 1957 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Margaret Lucy Wilkins (b. 1939), "My pretty rose tree", op. 15 no. 2 (1970) [ mezzo-soprano, viola, and piano ], from Songs of Innocence and Experience, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
by James N. Wise (b. 1919), "My pretty rose tree", published c1964 [ baritone and orchestra ], NY : CFG Publ. Co. [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 56