by Robert Herrick (1591 - 1674)
To the rose
Language: English
Go, happy rose, and interwove With other flowers bind my love. Tell her too, she must not be Longer flowing, longer free, That so oft has fettered me. Say, if she's fretful, I have bands Of pearl and gold to bind her hands; Tell her, if she struggle still, I have my the rods at will, For to tame, but not to kill. Take thou my blessing thus and go, And tell her this, but do not so! Lest a handsome anger fly Like a lightning from her eye, And burn thee up, as well as I.
Authorship:
- by Robert Herrick (1591 - 1674) [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 Charles Villiers Stanford, Sir (1852 - 1924), "To the rose", op. 19 (Six songs) no. 3 (1882), published 1884 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 15
Word count: 97