[Withouten]1 you
No rose can grow;
No leaf be green
If never seen
Your sweetest face;
No bird have grace
Or [power]2 to sing;
Or anything
Be kind, or fair,
And you nowhere.
View original text (without footnotes)
1 Rorem: "Without"
2 Duke, Howe: "pow'r"
Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, Sir (1891 - 1975), "Little elegy", 1940, published 1942, first performed 1941 [ low voice and piano ], from Seven American Poems, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Woods Duke (1899 - 1984), "Little elegy", 1946, published 1959 [ soprano or tenor and piano ], from Two songs, no. 1, G. Schirmer [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Mary (Carlisle) Howe (1882 - 1964), "Little elegy", published 1939 [ voice and piano ], San Antonio, TX: Southern Music Company [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Ned Rorem (1923 - 2022), "Little elegy", published 1952 [ medium voice and piano ], from Two songs, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Anthony Strilko (b. 1931), "Little elegy", published 1962 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Bertram Kottmann) , "Klagelied", copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Ted Perry , Garrett Medlock
[Guest Editor] This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 10
Word count: 35
Wo du nicht bist,
kein' Ros' erblüht;
kein Blatt ergrünt,
erschaut es nicht
dein lieb Gesicht;
kein Vogel singt
sein zierlich Lied;
und keine Lieb'
an keinem Ort,
und du bist fort.