LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,102)
  • Text Authors (19,442)
  • 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 J. Wotton England, Sir

In praise of his Daphnis
Language: English 
Tune on my pipe the praise of my love,
Love fair and bright;
Fill earth with sound, and airy heav'ns above,
Heav'ns love's delight,
With Daphnis' praise.

To pleasant Tempe groves and plains about,
Plains shepherd's pride,
Resounding echoes of her praise ring out,
Ring far and wide
My Daphnis' praise.

When I begin to sing, begin to sound,
Sounds loud and shrill,
Do make each note unto the skies rebound,
Skies calm and still
With Daphnis' praise.

Her eyes like shining lamps in midst of night,
Night dark and dead,
Or as the stars that give the seamen light,
Light for to lead
Their wand'ring ships.

Her lips like scarlet of the finest dye,
Scarlet blood-red;
Teeth white as snow which on the hills doth lie,
Hills over spread
By winter's force.

Her skin as sof as is the finest silk,
Silk soft and fine,
Of colour like unto the whitest milk,
Milk of the kine
Of Daphnis' herd.

As swift of foot as is the pretty roe,
Roe swift of pace,
When yelping hounds pursue her to and fro,
Hounds fierce in chase
To reave her.

Cease tongue to tell of any more compares,
Compares too rude,
Daphnis' deserts and beauty are too rare;
Then here conclude
Fair Daphnis' praise.

Text Authorship:

  • by J. Wotton England, Sir , appears in Helicon, first published 1600 [author's text not yet checked 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 Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, Sir (1891 - 1975), "In praise of his Daphnis", from Two love songs, no. 2. [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

Researcher for this page: Ted Perry

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 40
Word count: 212

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