by John Gay (1685 - 1732)
Youth's the season made for joys
Language: English
Youth's the season made for joys; Love is then our duty. She alone who that employs Well deserves her beauty. Let's be gay while we may Drink and sport yet today; Let's be gay while we may, Beauty's a flow'r despis'd in decay. Let us drink and sport today; Ours is not tomorrow. Love with youth flies swift away, Age is naught but sorrow.1 Dance and sing, Time's on the wing, Life never knows the return of spring.
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View original text (without footnotes)1 Carter adds
Let's be gay, Dance and sing; Let's be gay, Time's on the wing,
Text Authorship:
- by John Gay (1685 - 1732), Air XXII from The Beggar's Opera, first published 1728 [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 Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "Youth's the season made for joys", 2005 [ tenor and piano ], from Three Airs from the Beggar's Opera, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. (1908 - 2012), "Let's be gay" [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 79