Come, O come my life's delight | Come, O come, my life's delight!

Come, O come, my life's delight!

Language: English

Available translation(s): FRE

Come, O come, my life's delight!
  Let me not in languor pine:
Love loves no delay, thy sight
  The more enjoyed, the more divine.
O come, and take from me
The pain of being deprived of thee.

Thou all sweetness dost enclose,
  Like a little world of bliss:
Beauty guards thy looks: the rose
  In them pure and eternal is.
Come then! and make thy flight
As swift to me as heavenly light!

About the headline (FAQ)

Authorship:

by Thomas Campion (1567 - 1620), first published 1617 [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 Campion (1567 - 1620), "Come, O come, my life's delight", published 1617, from The Third and Fourth Booke of Ayres - The Third Booke, no. 11 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Rebecca Clarke (1886 - 1979), "Come, o come, my life's delight", 1911-12? [ SATB chorus ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937), "Come, O come my life's delight", 1921, published 1922 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by Brian Holmes (b. 1946), "Come, O come, my life's delight", from Six Ayres, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
by William Martin Yeates Hurlstone (1876 - 1906), "Come, my life's delight ", 1900, published 1902 [ baritone and piano ], from Four Songs [for baritone], no. 3, London, Edwin Ashdown [sung text not yet checked]
by David Lang (b. 1957), "Come, o Come, my life's delight", 2022 [ soprano and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Roger Quilter (1877 - 1953), "My life's delight", op. 12 no. 2 (1907), published 1908 [ voice and piano ], from Seven Elizabethan Lyrics, no. 2, London, Boosey [sung text checked 1 time]

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

Researcher for this text: Ted Perry

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 73