The look of love alarms,
Because it's fill'd with fire;
But the look of soft deceit
Shall win the lover's hire.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

• by William Blake (1757 - 1827), written 1793, appears in Notebook, in Gnomic Verses, in 17. Several Questions Answered, no. 2 [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 Romulus Franceschini (1929 - 1994), "The look of love alarms", 1964 [ tenor or soprano and piano ], from Blake Cycle, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Peter Tahourdin (1928 - 2009), "The look of love alarms, because it's filled with fire", 1968 [ SATB chorus a cappella ], from Seven Gnomic Verses, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]

The text above (or a part of it) is used in the following settings:

• by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), "Eternity", 1957, published 1958 [ voice and oboe ], from Ten Blake Songs, no. 10
  • View the full text. [sung text checked 1 time]
    

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2011-01-07
Line count: 4
Word count: 21