by Thomas Heywood (?1574 - 1641)
Pack, clouds, away! and welcome, day!
Language: English
Pack, clouds, away! and welcome, day!
With night we banish sorrow.
Sweet air, blow soft; mount, larks, aloft
To give my Love good-morrow!
Wings from the wind to please her mind,
Notes from the lark I'll borrow:
Bird, prune thy wing! nightingale, sing!
To give my Love good-morrow!
To give my Love good-morrow
Notes from them both I'll borrow.
Wake from thy nest, robin-red-breast!
Sing, birds, in every furrow!
And from each bill, let music shrill
Give my fair Love good-morrow!
Blackbird and thrush in every bush,
Stare, linnet, and cocksparrow!
You pretty elves, among yourselves
Sing my fair Love good-morrow;
To give my Love good-morrow
Sing, birds, in every furrow!
About the headline (FAQ)
View text with footnotesConfirmed with The Oxford Book of English Verse, edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch, OUP, 1919, Item 205.
Glossary
Stare = starling
Authorship
- by Thomas Heywood (?1574 - 1641), "Matin Song" [author's text checked 2 times 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 Alan Bullard (b. 1947), "Matin song" [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
- by George Whitefield Chadwick (1854 - 1931), "Pack, clouds, away", published 1910 [TTBB quartet or chorus with piano ad libitum], from Three Partsongs, no. 3 [ sung text checked 1 time]
- by Roger Quilter (1877 - 1953), "Morning Song", op. 24 no. 2, published 1922, first performed 1922 [voice and piano], from Five English Love Lyrics, no. 2, London, Chappell & Co. Confirmed with CD Booklet Roger Quilter - The Elizabethan & Jacobean Lyrics, Nimbus Records, NI5969. [ sung text checked 1 time]
Research team for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Iain Sneddon [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2009-03-23
Line count: 20
Word count: 111