So, we'll go no more a roving | So we'll go no more a-roving

by George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron (1788 - 1824)

So we'll go no more a‑roving

Language: English

Available translation(s): FRE GER

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 Ronald A. Beckett , "So we'll go no more a-roving", 2008 [ voice and piano ], from Four Romantic Songs, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
by Charles Bennett , "Serenade", published 1922 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
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]
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]
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]
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]
by Peter Dickinson (b. 1934), "Reminiscences", 1978, first performed 1979 [ low voice, alto saxophone, and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Bernard van Dieren (1887 - 1936), as Helen Bevan Dean, "So we'll go no more a roving", 1926 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by William Edmondstoune Duncan (1866 - 1920), "No more a-roving", published 1918 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Richard Dyer-Bennet , "So, we'll go no more a roving", <<1954 [ voice and guitar ] [sung text not yet checked]
by John Lodge Ellerton (1801 - 1873), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1833 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Herbert Ferrers , "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1929 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Michael Fiveisky , "We'll go no more a-roving", published 1948 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Cecil Forsyth (1870 - 1941), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1927 [ TTBB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Patrick Arthur Sheldon Hadley (1899 - 1973), "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1929 [ voice and piano or with string quintet ] [sung text not yet checked]
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]
by C. H. Keefer , "Love's rest", published 1907 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by George Kiallmark (1781 - 1835), "We'll go no more a-roving", published 1830 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
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]
by Leighton Lucas (1903 - 1982), "No more", published 1968 [ SSA chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "So we'll go no more a-roving", op. 203 (1948) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
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]
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]
by Lewys Thomas , "So, we'll go no more a roving", published 1934 [ TTBB chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Millard S. Thomson (b. 1918), "So, we'll go no more a roving", 1944 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
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]
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]
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]
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]

The text above (or a part of it) is used in the following settings:

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

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in French (Français), a translation by Louis Hennevé ; composed by Maude Valérie White.
Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Emil R. H. Friebel.

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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 75