by Robert Browning (1812 - 1889)
Wanting is ‑‑ what?
Language: English
Wanting is -- what? Summer redundant, Blueness abundant, -- Where is the blot? Beamy the world, yet a blank all the same, -- Framework which waits for a picture to frame: What of the leafage, what of the flower? Roses embowering with nought they embower! Come then, complete incompletion, O comer, Pant through the blueness, perfect the summer! Breathe but one breath Rose-beauty above. And all that was death Grows life, grows love, Grows love!
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Text Authorship:
- by Robert Browning (1812 - 1889), appears in Jocoseria, Prologue, first published 1883 [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 Granville Ransome Bantock, Sir (1868 - 1946), "Wanting is -- what?", 1921, published 1922 [ voice and piano ], from Dramatic Lyrics Set III, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, Sir (1883 - 1953), "Wanting is -- what?", 1900 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Beatrice Forster , "Wanting is -- what?", published c1902? [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Edwin Gerschefski (b. 1909), "Wanting is what?", copyright © 1961 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Margaret A. Halley , "To perfect the summer", published 1907 [ voice and piano ], from Two songs [sung text not yet checked]
- by Marshall Rutgers Kernochan (1880 - 1955), "Wanting is -- what?", published 1908 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2009-02-26
Line count: 15
Word count: 72