Song Cycle by John Ireland (1879-1962)

1. The lent lily

Authorship

by Alfred Edward Housman (1859-1936) , "The lent lily", from A Shropshire Lad, no. 29, published 1896

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'Tis spring; come out to ramble
The hilly brakes around,
For under thorn and bramble
About the hollow ground
The primroses are found.

And there's the windflower chilly
With all the winds at play,
And there's the Lenten lily
That has not long to stay
And dies on Easter Day.

And since till girls go maying
You find the primrose still,
And find the windflower playing
With every wind at will,
But not the daffodil.

Bring baslkets nw, and sally
Upon the spring's array,
And bear from hill and valley
The daffodil away
That dies on Easter Day.

2. Ladslove

Authorship

by Alfred Edward Housman (1859-1936) , no title, from A Shropshire Lad, no. 15, published 1896

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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.

3. Goal and wicket

Authorship

by Alfred Edward Housman (1859-1936) , no title, from A Shropshire Lad, no. 17, published 1896

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Twice a week the winter thorough
  Here stood I to keep the goal:
Football then was fighting sorrow
  For the young man's soul.

Now in Maytime to the wicket
  Out I march with bat and pad:
See the son of grief at cricket
  Trying to be glad.

Try I will; no harm in trying:
  Wonder 'tis how little mirth
Keeps the bones of man from lying
  On the bed of earth.

4. The vain desire

Authorship

by Alfred Edward Housman (1859-1936) , no title, from A Shropshire Lad, no. 33, published 1896

If truth in hearts that perish
Could move the powers on high,
I think the love I bear you
Should make you not to die.

Sure, sure, if stedfast meaning,
If single thought could save,
The world might end tomorrow,
You should not see the grave.

This long and sure-set liking,
This boundless will to please,
- Oh, you should live for ever
If there were help in these.

But now, since all is idle,
To this lost heart be kind,
Ere to a town you journey
Where friends are ill to find.

5. The encounter

Authorship

by Alfred Edward Housman (1859-1936) , from A Shropshire Lad, no. 22, published 1896

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The street sounds to the soldiers' tread,
And out we troop to see:
A single redcoat turns his head,
He turns and looks at me.

My man, from sky to sky's so far,
We never crossed before;
Such leagues apart the world's ends are,
We're like to meet no more.

What thoughts at heart have you and I
We cannot stop to tell;
But dead or living, drunk or dry,
Soldier, I wish you well.

6. Epilogue

Authorship

by Alfred Edward Housman (1859-1936) , no title, from A Shropshire Lad, no. 57, published 1896

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You smile upon your friend today,
 Today his ills are over;
You hearken to the lover's say,
 And happy is the lover.

'Tis late to hearken, late to smile,
 But better late than never;
I shall have lived a little while
 Before I die for ever.

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