Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax: Three Songs (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


When I was one-and-twenty
 I heard a wise man say,
"Give crowns and pounds and guineas
 But not your heart away;
Give pearls away and rubies
 But keep your fancy free."
But I was one-and-twenty,
 No use to talk to me.

When I was one-and-twenty
 I heard him say again,
"The heart out of the bosom
 Was never given in vain;
'Tis paid with sighs a plenty
 And sold for endless rue."
And I am two-and-twenty,
 And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.

?. Wild almond (scherzo)

Language: English

Authorship

(Frederic) Herbert Trench (1865-1923)

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Almond, wild almond, 
Give counsel to me, 
And hush thy fierce lover 
The wind in the tree ! 

Along the night pasture 
I've come through the dew 
To tell thee, wild almond, 
The old songs are true ! 

Like the flower on thy branches 
The heart in me springs 
With airs and upliftings 
And hundreds of wings ! 

I, too, have a lover . . . 
Keep, keep it from them --
The wise ones that eye me --
Thou whispering stem ! 

I deal with him coldly --
I dash him with pride : 
Yet he comes of evenings 
And stands at my side. 

O had he entreated 
I could have said nay, 
But he, he says nothing 
And then goes away ! 

Ah, loves he for ever ? . . . 
And loves me alone? . . . 
These things that men say not 
How can they be known ? 

He may, but he may not,
And I would be free : --
Now play not, now sway not, 
Thou little black tree, 

Almond, wild almond, 
Give counsel to me !