To daffodils | Fair daffodils, we weep to see

Fair daffodils, we weep to see

Language: English

Our translations: CAT CHI DUT FIN GER

Fair daffodils, we weep to see
You haste away so soon;
As yet the early-rising sun
Has not attain'd his noon.
Stay, stay
Until the hasting day
Has run
But to [the]¹ evensong,
And, having pray'd together, we	
Will go with you along.

We have short time to stay, as you,
We have as short a spring;
As quick a growth to meet decay,
As you, or anything.
We die,
As your hours [do,]² and dry
Away,
Like to the summer's rain,
Or as the pearls of morning's dew,
Ne'er to be found again.

Available sung texts: ← What is this?

• F. Bridge • B. Britten • H. Darke • F. Delius • M. Dring • E. Farrar • M. Herbert • D. Holman • A. Sullivan

About the headline (FAQ)

View text without footnotes
¹ omitted by Darke.
² omitted by Farrar.

Text Authorship:

by Robert Herrick (1591 - 1674), "To daffodils" [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 Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, Sir (1883 - 1953), "To daffodils", 1900 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Frank Bridge (1879 - 1941), "Fair daffodils", 1905, published 1919 [ voice and piano ], revised in 1919 [sung text checked 1 time]
by (Edward) Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976), "To daffodils", 1950, from Five Flower Songs, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Harold Edwin Darke (1888 - 1977), "To daffodils" [ chorus ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by Frederick Delius (1862 - 1934), "To daffodils", 1915, published 1919, first performed 1915 [ voice and piano ], from Four Old English Lyrics, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Madeleine Dring (1923 - 1977), "To daffodils" [ voice and piano ], from Dedications: 5 Poems by Robert Herrick, no. 1, confirmed with a score [sung text checked 1 time]
by Ernest Bristow Farrar (1885 - 1918), "To daffodils" [ satb chorus ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by John Linton Gardner (1917 - 2011), "Fair daffodils", op. 9 (1951) [ SATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Muriel Emily Herbert (1897 - 1984), "To daffodils", 1916 [ voice and piano ], confirmed with a CD booklet [sung text checked 1 time]
by Derek Holman (b. 1931), "Fair daffodils", 2009, first performed 2009 [ voice and piano ], from The Four Seasons, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Ernest John Moeran (1894 - 1950), "To daffodils", R. 54 no. 7 (1930?), published 1933 [ chorus ], from Songs of Springtime, no. 7, Novello [sung text not yet checked]
by Ann Sheppard Mounsey (1811 - 1891), as Ann Sheppard Bartholomew, "Faire Daffodils", 1835 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Samuel J. Newns (1886 - 1965), "Fair daffodils", published 1944 [ SSA chorus ], from Six Part Songs for SSC, no. 4, Lovedale Press [sung text not yet checked]
by Humphrey Procter-Gregg (1895 - 1980), "To daffodils" [ chorus ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Roger Quilter (1877 - 1953), "To daffodils", published 1904 [ SATB chorus and piano ], from Two Partsongs, no. 1, London : Boosey & Hawkes [sung text not yet checked]
by Alan Rawsthorne (1905 - 1971), "To daffodils" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "To Daffodils", op. 224 (1949) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "To Daffodils", op. 487 (1957) [sung text not yet checked]
by Hans Uwe Strübing (b. 1956), "To daffodils", op. 81 no. 1 (2005-6) [ soprano and piano ], from Vier englische Lieder für Sopran und Klavier, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
by Arthur Sullivan, Sir (1842 - 1900), "Fair Daffodils", 1857, published 1904 [ satb chorus a cappella ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), "To Daffodils", 1895 [ voice and piano ], two versions [sung text not yet checked]
by Maude Valérie White (1855 - 1937), "To daffodils", published 1880 [ voice and piano ], London, Stanley Lucas, Weber & Co. [sung text not yet checked]
by Chee Yean Wong (b. 1979), "To Daffodils" [ voice and piano ], from Five Songs, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
by Mabel Nightingale Woodward (1876 - 1911), "Daffadils", published 1912 [ voice and piano ], from Songs, no. 10, Birmingham : Press of the Birmingham Printers; note: [sic] for the title [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Researcher for this page: Ted Perry

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 96