by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928)
My Love's gone a‑fighting
Language: English
My Love's gone a-fighting Where war-trumpets call, The wrongs of men righting With carbine and ball, And sabre for smiting, And charger, and all! Of whom does he think there Where war-trumpets call? To whom does he drink there, With carbine and ball On battle's red brink there, And charger, and all? He hears her voice a-humming Where war-trumpets call, "I wait, Love, thy coming With carbine and ball, And bandsmen a-drumming Thee, charger and all!"
Text Authorship:
- by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), appears in The Dynasts, Act V, Scene 6, first published 1908 [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 Garth Baxter (b. 1946), "My Love's gone a-fighting", from The Battle Cry, no. 1. [text verified 1 time]
- by Boyton Smith (b. 1837), "My love's gone a-fighting" [voice and piano] [text not verified]
- by Charles A. Speyer , "My love's gone a-fighting", published 1921. [voice and piano] [text not verified]
Researcher for this page: Garth Baxter
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 18
Word count: 76