LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,117)
  • Text Authors (19,508)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

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

They say that Hope is happiness
Language: English 
They say that Hope is happiness --
  But genuine Love must prize the past;
And mem'ry wakes the thoughts that bless
  They rose the first -- they set the last.
And all that mem'ry loves the most
  Was once our only hope to be:
And all that hope adored and lost
Hath melted into memory.

Alas! it is delusion all -- 
  The future cheats us from afar,
Nor can we be what we recall,
  Nor dare we think on what we are.

Text Authorship:

  • by George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron (1788 - 1824), "They say that Hope is happiness", appears in Hebrew Melodies, no. 29, first published 1815 [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 Giacomo Arri , "They say that Hope is happiness", published 1841 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Leonard J[ordan] Lehrman (b. 1949), "They say that Hope is happiness ", op. 36 no. 2 (1973) [ female voice with piano or winds ], from Two songs of a madman, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Isaac Nathan (1790 - 1864), "They say that Hope is happiness", published 1815 [ voice and piano ], from A Selection of Hebrew Melodies No. I, no. 29 [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by John Thomson (1805 - 1841), "They say that Hope is happiness", published 1834 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Alexis Paulin Pâris) , "Ils disent que l'espérance est du bonheur", appears in Mélodies hébraïques, no. 29


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2009-08-09
Line count: 12
Word count: 79

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris