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by Ernest Christopher Dowson (1867 - 1900)

Villanelle of Marguerite's
Language: English 
"A little, passionately, not at all?"
She casts the snowy petals on the air:
And what care we how many petals fall!

Nay, wherefore seek the seasons to forestall?
It is but playing, and she will not care,
A little, passionately, not at all!

She would not answer us if we should call
Across the years: her visions are too fair;
And what care we how many petals fall!

She knows us not, nor recks if she enthrall
With voice and eyes and fashion of her hair,
A little, passionately, not at all!

Knee-deep she goes in meadow grasses tall,
Kissed by the daisies that her fingers tear:
And what care we how many petals fall!

We pass and go: but she shall not recall
What men we were, nor all she made us bear:
"A little, passionately, not at all!"
And what care we how many petals fall!

First published in Temple Bar, May 1894, revised 1896.

Text Authorship:

  • by Ernest Christopher Dowson (1867 - 1900), "Villanelle of Marguerite's" [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 Pamela Harrison (1915 - 1990), "Villanelle of Marguerite's" [ tenor and strings ], from Five Poems of Ernest Dowson  [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-04-24
Line count: 19
Word count: 152

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