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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!

About the headline (FAQ)

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. [
     text not verified 
    ]
  • by Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, Sir (1883 - 1953), "Wanting is -- what?", 1900. [voice and piano] [
     text not verified 
    ]
  • by Beatrice Forster , "Wanting is -- what?", published c1902? [high voice and piano] [
     text not verified 
    ]
  • by Edwin Gerschefski (b. 1909), "Wanting is what?", copyright © 1961. [high voice and piano] [
     text not verified 
    ]
  • by Margaret A. Halley , "To perfect the summer", published 1907 [voice and piano], from Two songs [
     text not verified 
    ]
  • by Marshall Rutgers Kernochan (1880 - 1955), "Wanting is -- what?", published 1908. [high voice and piano] [
     text not verified 
    ]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2009-02-26
Line count: 15
Word count: 72

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