'Tis time, I think, by Wenlock town | 'Tis time, I think, by Wenlock town

by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936)

'Tis time, I think, by Wenlock town

Language: English

Our translations: CHI

'Tis time, I think, by Wenlock town
  The golden broom should blow;
The hawthorn sprinkled up and down
  Should charge the land with snow.

Spring will not wait the loiterer's time
  Who keeps so long away;
So others wear the broom and climb
  The hedgerows heaped with may.

Oh tarnish late on Wenlock Edge,
  Gold that I never see;
Lie long, high snowdrifts in the hedge
  That will not shower on me.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), no title, appears in A Shropshire Lad, no. 39, first published 1896 [author's text checked 2 times 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 Geoffrey Allen (b. 1927), "'Tis time I think ", op. 10 no. 7 (1995) [ tenor and piano ], from Bredon Hill : eight songs for tenor voice and piano to poems of A. E. Housman, no. 7 [sung text not yet checked]
by Thomas Henry Wait Armstrong (1898 - ?), "'Tis time, I think, by Wenlock town", published 1934 [ three-part children's chorus or women's chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, Sir (1891 - 1975), "'Tis time, I think, by Wenlock town", alternate title: "Wenlock Edge", c1914 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by David Branson (b. 1909), "The unseen Spring", published 1939 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by John Edmunds (1913 - 1986), "Wenlock Edge" [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by William Parks Grant (b. 1910), "'Tis time, I think", op. 7 (A Shropshire Lad) no. ? [ tenor and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937), "'Tis time, I think, by Wenlock town", 1919, published 1923 [ tenor, string quartet, and piano ], from Ludlow and Teme, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Janet Hamilton , "'Tis time, I think, by Wenlock town", published 1919 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by John (Nicholson) Ireland (1879 - 1962), "Hawthorn Time", 1919, published 1919 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by John (Nicholson) Ireland (1879 - 1962), "Spring will not wait", 1927, published 1928 [ piano ], from We'll to the woods no more, no. 3, tacet [sung text checked 1 time]
by John Jeffreys (1927 - 2010), "'Tis time, I think, by Wenlock town" [sung text checked 1 time]
by Ernest John Moeran (1894 - 1950), "'Tis time, I think, by Wenlock town", R. 43 (1925), published 1926 [ baritone and piano ], Winthrop Rogers [sung text checked 1 time]
by Charles Wilfred Orr (1893 - 1976), "'Tis time, I think, by Wenlock town", 1921, published 1923 [ tenor and piano ], from Two Songs from "A Shropshire Lad", no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Freda Mary Swain (1902 - 1985), "'Tis time, I think, by Wenlock town", 1925, rev. 1973 [ tenor and piano ensemble ], from The Lost Heart [sung text not yet checked]
by John Ramsden Williamson (1929 - 2015), "'Tis time, I think, by Wenlock town" [ baritone and piano ] [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: 12
Word count: 72