by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936)
Look not in my eyes, for fear
Language: English
Look not in my eyes, for fear They mirror true the sight I see, And there you find your face too clear And love it and be lost like me. One the long nights through must lie Spent in star-defeated sighs, But why should you as well as I Perish? Gaze not in my eyes. A Grecian lad, as I hear tell, One that many loved in vain, Looked into a forest well And never looked away again. There, when the turf in springtime flowers, With downward eye and gazes sad, Stands amid the glancing showers A jonquil, not a Grecian lad.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), no title, appears in A Shropshire Lad, no. 15, first published 1896 [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 Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley, Sir (1903 - 1989), "Look not in my eyes", op. 14 no. 3d (1940), published 1983 [ high voice and piano ], from Five Housman Songs, op. 14 no. 3, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by David Branson (b. 1909), "Look not in my eyes", published 1939 [ mezzo-soprano or baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by George Sainton Kaye Butterworth (1885 - 1916), "Look not in my eyes", published 1911 [ voice and piano ], from Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Alfred Redgrave Cripps (1882 - 1950), "Look not in my eyes, for fear", published <<1944 [ voice and piano ], from Five "Shropshire Lad" Songs [sung text not yet checked]
- by Blair Fairchild (1877 - 1933), "Look not in my eyes", op. 9 no. 1 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Thaddeus Gorecki , "Look not in my eyes, for fear", c1933 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Timothy Hoekman , "Look not in my eyes", 1981, published 1988 [ voice and piano ], from Seven Housman Songs, no. 6, Look not in my eyes [sung text not yet checked]
- by John (Nicholson) Ireland (1879 - 1962), "Ladslove", published 1921 [ voice and piano ], from The Land of Lost Content, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "Look not in my eyes", op. 130 (1947) [ baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "Look Not In My Eyes", op. 520 (1958) [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "Look Not In My Eyes", op. 659 (1965) [sung text not yet checked]
- by Corbett C. Sumsion , "Look not in my eyes", published c1936 [ TTBB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Ramsden Williamson (1929 - 2015), "Look not in my eyes" [ baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Patricia Dillard Eguchi) , copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- HEB Hebrew (עברית) (Max Mader) , "אל תביטי בעיניי", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 102