by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928)
If it's ever spring again
Language: English
If it's ever spring again, Spring again, I shall go where went I when Down the moor-cock splashed, and hen, Seeing me not, amid their flounder, Standing with my arm around her; If it's ever spring again, Spring again, I shall go where went I then. If it's ever summer-time, Summer-time, With the hay crop at the prime, And the cuckoos - two - in rhyme, As they used to be, or seemed to, We shall do as long we've dreamed to, If it's ever summer-time, Summer-time, With the hay, and bees achime.
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Authorship
- by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), appears in Late Lyrics and Earlier with Many Other Verses, first published 1922 [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 Rutland Boughton (1878 - 1960), "Foreboding", published 1924 [voice and piano or orchestra], from Three Hardy Songs [text not verified]
- by (Edward) Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976), "If it's ever spring again", 1953. [tenor and piano] [text not verified]
- by Christopher Kaye Le Fleming (b. 1908), "If it's ever spring again", published 1943. [mezzo-soprano or baritone and piano] [text not verified]
- by Robin Humphrey Milford (1903 - 1959), "If it's ever spring again", published 1939 [tenor and piano], from Four Hardy Songs [text not verified]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 18
Word count: 94