The half-moon westers low, my love (Housman, set by Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley, Sir, Susan Calvin, John Woods Duke, Jake Heggie, Donald James Martino, Leslie Russell, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Raymond Wilding-White, John Ramsden Williamson) (The LiederNet Archive: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)

by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936)

The half‑moon westers low, my love

Language: English

The half-moon westers low, my love,
And the wind brings up the rain;
And wide apart we lie, my love,
And seas between the twain.

I know not if it rains, my love,
In the land where you do lie;
And oh, so sound you sleep, my love.
You know no more than I.

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Authorship

by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), no title, appears in Last Poems, no. 26, first published 1922 [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 Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley, Sir (1903 - 1989), "The half-moon westers low" [ sung text checked 1 time]
by Susan Calvin , "The half-moon westers low", published 1965. [SATB chorus a cappella] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
by John Woods Duke (1899 - 1984), "The half-moon westers low", 1957. [baritone and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
by Jake Heggie (b. 1961), "The half-moon westers low", 2005, first performed 2005 [tenor and baritone with violin, viola, cello and piano], from Here and Gone, no. 7. [ sung text checked 1 time]
by Donald James Martino (1931 - 2005), "The half-moon westers low, my love", 1951, published 1978, from Separate Songs, no. 2. [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
by Leslie Russell , "The half-moon westers low, my love", 1973 [soprano or tenor and piano], from The Ludlow Cycle [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), "The half-moon westers low", 1927, published 1954, rev. 1954 [voice and violin], from Along the Field, no. 3. [ sung text checked 1 time]
by Raymond Wilding-White (b. 1922), "The half-moon westers low", published 1969 [high voice and piano], from Three Housman Poems [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
by John Ramsden Williamson (1929 - 2015), "The half-moon westers low, my love" [baritone and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]

Researcher for this text: Ted Perry

Text added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Last modified: 2016-07-10 09:29:52
Line count: 8
Word count: 54