So we'll go no more a-roving
  So late into the night,
Though the heart be [still]1 as loving,
  And the moon be still as bright.

For the sword outwears [the]2 sheath,
  And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart [must pause to breathe]3,
  And Love itself have rest.

Though the night was made for loving,
  And the day returns too soon,
Yet we'll go no more a-roving
  By the light of the moon.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
Included in a letter to Thomas Moore on February 28, 1817
See also Henley's "We'll go no more a-roving"
¹ Armstrong, White: "ne'er"
² Chávez: "its"
³ Armstrong, White: "itself must pause"

Authorship

• by George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron (1788 - 1824), "So we'll go no more a-roving", written 1817, appears in Letters and Journals of Lord Byron: with Notices of His Life, Volume II, first published 1830 [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 Thomas Henry Wait Armstrong (1898 - ?), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1933 [TTBB chorus a cappella] [ sung text checked 1 time]
• by Charles Bennett , "Serenade", published 1922 [voice and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Carlos Chávez (1899 - 1978), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1946 [SSAATTBB chorus a cappella], from Three Nocturnes, no. 3 [ sung text checked 1 time]
• by George Cory (b. 1920?), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1970 [medium voice and piano], from Four Songs of Night [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Mervyn Dale , "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1971 [SA chorus or unison chorus and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Robert Mills Delaney (1903 - 1956), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1931 [SATB chorus a cappella] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Robert Nathaniel Dett (1882 - 1943), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1940 [women's chorus a cappella] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Peter Dickinson (b. 1934), "Reminiscences", 1978, first performed 1979 [low voice, alto saxophone, and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Bernard van Dieren (1887 - 1936), "So we'll go no more a roving", note: set as Helen Bevan Dean [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by William Edmondstoune Duncan (1866 - 1920), "No more a-roving", published 1918 [medium voice and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Richard Dyer-Bennet , "So, we'll go no more a roving", <<1954 [voice and guitar] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by John Lodge Ellerton (1801 - 1873), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1833 [voice and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Herbert Ferrers , "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1929 [voice and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Michael Fiveisky , "We'll go no more a-roving", published 1948 [voice and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Cecil Forsyth (1870 - 1941), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1927 [TTBB chorus a cappella] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Patrick Arthur Sheldon Hadley (1899 - 1973), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1929 [voice and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Laura Karpman , "So we'll go no more a-roving ", copyright © 1986 [soprano or tenor, flute (piccolo), English horn, bass clarinet, marimba, harpsichord, violin, viola, and contrabass], from Stanzas for Music, no. 3, Saint Louis, Étoile Music [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by C. H. Keefer , "Love's rest", published 1907 [voice and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by George Kiallmark (1781 - 1835), "We'll go no more a-roving", published 1830 [voice and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Samuel Ernest Lovatt (1877 - 1954), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1934 [TTBarB chorus a cappella] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Leighton Lucas (1903 - 1982), "No more", published 1968 [SSA chorus a cappella] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Elizabeth Maconchy (1907 - 1994), "So, we'll go no more a roving", 1973-4, published 1976 [voice and harp], from Three Songs for Voice and Harp, no. 2 [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Derrick Mason , "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1967 [chorus, glockenspiel, cymbals, xylophone, triangle, and piano], from Three Episodes [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Robert Owens (1925 - 2017), "So we'll go no more a-roving" [tenor and piano], from Stanzas for Music, no. 4 [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Alexander Paucker (1905 - 1972), as Francis Chagrin, "We'll go no more a-roving", <<1972 [voice and violoncello ad libitum] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by George Norman Peterkin (1886 - 1982), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1929 [low voice and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Kurt George Roger (1895 - 1966), "So, we'll go no more a roving", 1946, first performed 1950 [baritone and piano], from Three English Poems [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Rudolph Edward Schirmer (b. 1919), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1949 [high voice and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Lewys Thomas , "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1934 [TTBB chorus and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Millard S. Thomson (b. 1918), "So, we'll go no more a roving", 1944 [medium voice and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Bryceson Treharne (1879 - 1948), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1919 [high voice and piano], from Six songs [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Samuel W. Underwood , "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1905 [voice and piano], from Two Short Songs [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by George Theophilus Walker (b. 1922), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1971 [medium voice and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
• by Maude Valérie White (1855 - 1937), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1888 [voice and piano], London: Chappell & Co.; also published in Women Composers Music Through the Ages, ed. by Sylvia Glickman and Martha Furman Schleifer, Volume 7: Composers Born 1800 to 1899, Vocal Music, New Haven, Detroit, etc.: G.K. Hall & Co., 2003, pages 365-370, also set in French (Français) [ sung text checked 1 time]
• by Pedro de Zulueta , "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1957 [duet for soprano and tenor with piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]

This text (or a part of it) is used in a work

• by T. Wallace Southam , "We'll go no more a-roving", published 1966, stanza 1 of [voice and piano], from Poetry Set in Jazz
  • Go to the full setting text.
    

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in French (Français), a translation by Louis Hennevé GER ; composed by Maude Valérie White.
  • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
    
• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist FRE ; composed by Emil R. H. Friebel.
  • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
    

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

• FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• GER German (Deutsch) (Walter A. Aue) , "So werden wir nicht mehr schweifen", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

Text added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Last modified: 2017-10-11 12:39:23
Line count: 12
Word count: 75